Missing
by Jasmin 0583
Summary: When one of their fellow agents goes missing, it's up to the team to find out what happened
1. Default Chapter

Author's note: This is my first fanfic ever, so please be gentle. The idea for the story came up after watching the episode Silent Partner where the three women Danny was naming the stars after –Erika, Daniella and Andrea were introduced. As the episode didn't reveal anything else about them, I made up my mind to find out by myself... This story originally was written in german and I'm just in the process of translating it. I'm just up to my school english to translate, so if anything sounds a little queer you know why. Hope you like it. Please R+R ***************************************************************************  
  
Chapter One:  
  
The office room of the FBI's missing persons unit in New York was still covered in silence. It was briefly after six o'clock in the morning. They had just been called to a crime scene and would start their office work soon.  
  
Apparently there was no use for prescribed working hours on kidnapping. Unfortunately people just never disappeared during usual FBI working hours. It seemed like a conspiracy.  
  
Jack had received the call and informed his team in order to get all of them to the crime scene. Sighing, he got out of bed and for the fraction of a second the thought of what for he did all this rushed through his head. He found himself smiling sarcasticly. It was one of these thoughts one always has, when woken up around this time. It was a 24 hour job and some days – especially at such mornings – he felt too old for doing it. At least until he had his first black coffee.  
  
Whe he reached the crime scene, dawn was already approaching. The sun would rise above New York in a few minutes. It was freezing cold. The day promised to become a cold, windy, unpleasant and very long one.  
  
He recognized Vivian standing in front of the house, talking to a police- officer standing aside. He nooded to her and put on a questioning look. With a gesture she vaguely pointed behind herself, announcing that Sam, Martin and Danny already were inside. He asked himself why it was always him arriving last at the place of events. Probably that was due to the advanced age, too. One has more difficulties to get out of bed. He shook off the thought and entered the house in order to catch up on the present state of their investigation. Maybe he wasn't the youngest any more, but he was good in what he did. He certainly didn't have a lack of experience.  
  
Sam came towards him when he entered the dwelling.  
  
"Linda Davis, 24 years old. She didn't come home from her weekend trip visiting some friends. Her mother called us. She was supposed to give her a call yesterday evening. She tried Lindas mobile phone and tried to reach her at home, but no one answered. When she tried again this morning and got no response, she alarmed the police. Linda works at a bakery, she was supposed to be at work around five. We called her employer, but neither did he hear anything of her."  
  
Jack pointed into Martin's direction, who interviewed a woman in her mid 50's.  
  
"That's the mother?"  
  
Sam nooded.  
  
"Any references so far?"  
  
He followed Sam through the rooms of the dwelling.  
  
"Nothing noticeable right now. Her passport and credit cards are here, as well as the main part of her clothing. Just the things she needed for the weekend are missing: a few clothes, some cash, driver's license, identity card – such things. Nothing uncommon after all. She even put out some clothing to wear this morning and there's a purchase list laying on the kitchen table. She definitely wanted to come home!"  
  
Martin joined them in this moment.  
  
"According to her mother's information, she should have been here yesterday at about eight pm. She visited two friends in Maine over the weekend. Her mother told me, that she called her daughter's friends. Linda departed yesterday at noon, but apparently never arrived here."  
  
Jack thought about it for a moment.  
  
"What were the weather conditions between Maine and New York?"  
  
Martin looked confused. Sam answered in his place.  
  
"Snow and icy surfaces."  
  
"Allright. First we're going to inform Highway Patrol. They should check upon the route Linda took. Give out Lindas description to all hospitals, police stations and morgues along her way! Ask the friends in Maine how she spent the weekend, if she got to know someone, how she seemed to them!"  
  
Turning around, Jack scanned the room.  
  
"Where's Danny?" he finally asked without any connection to his previous orders.  
  
"He's not here yet." Martin answered carefully.  
  
Jack frowned, but said nothing. "Danny being late?" he asked himself. It would namely be the first time after all, but things like that happened. Perhaps he didn't recieve the message, perhaps he was stuck in traffic somewhere on the way or perhaps he just overslept. He would join the investigation at the beginning of the usual working hours...  
  
TBC 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
  
Four hours and a few coffee cups ahead – it was almost 10:30 – Jack left his private office for a short briefing to find out if there had been any progress on their investigation. He had an uncertain feeling of them solving the case rather soon. He was pretty sure, that Linda Davis had partied a little too much on that weekend-trip, had been overtired and exhausted and probably suffered from a headache caused by the drinking when she headed home. And finally, due to the bad sight and the slippery streets, she lost control of her car.  
  
"What do we have?"  
  
Martin was the first to answer.  
  
"Highway Patrol notifies 46 accidents yesterday evening on the road Linda took. Fourteen had young female drivers of her age involved. Eight of the women are not identified yet. We sent her picture and a description to the hospitals in charge, but we're still waiting for their response."  
  
Vivian continued.  
  
"According to her friends in Maine, Linda was with them for the whole weekend. They partied a little and her friends admitted they had been fairly drunk on Saturday Night. They weren't sure of Linda being absolutely sober when she departed. Anyway, she forgot her purse containing her ID- card and driver's license up there."  
  
Jack nooded approvingly.  
  
"All right! I'm pretty sure we'll find Linda Davis in one of those hospitals! Anything else?"  
  
He turned to leave but suddenly stopped and headed to Sam.  
  
"Danny here already?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Did you try to reach him?"  
  
Sam gave him a puzzled look.  
  
"No. I thought he tried to reach you. Called in sick or something!" She paused for a moment. "Didn't he?"  
  
Hearing the concern in her voice, Jack reached behind her to get to the phone on the desk.  
  
"No he didn't."  
  
He dialed Dannys private number and heard the phone ringing, six times, seven times. After the 10th he pressed the craddle and redialed, trying his cell phone. The Voice Mail approached. Jack hung up the phone and looked at Sam, he seemed confused.  
  
"I can't reach him!"  
  
He asked himself if he should be concerned about this. It was inconvenient at least and as long as Jack could remember, it was the first time ever to happen. And he really was concerned, he couldn't deny that.The question emerging was, if it called for an immediate reaction.  
  
He could feel Sam's expectant gaze on him: she estimated his reaction, his decision. The only thing Jack knew for sure was, that if he had the possibility Danny would have called to inform them he wouldn't come in today. Now Jack was wondering why he hadn't; if anything happened that made a call impossible. That was the reason for Jack's concern and it would probably cause an overreaction, too, but it was better than wait and see - you never know.  
  
"I will go to his place."  
  
Sam wanted to join him, he could see it by the expression on her face. He eagerly wished for this situation to clear. He had an uneasy feeling about it and in the back of his mind he knew, that something was wrong...  
  
TBC  
  
Please R+R 


	3. Chapter 3

A.N.: Never been to New York, so I don't even know if there's a hispanic district and  
especially not, if there's one that fits my description. Please R+R.  
  
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Chapter 3:  
  
In general opinion, the district of New York Danny lived at wasn't considered the safest. At least if you didn't belong to a certain ethnic group. Calling the quarter an enclave would have been exagerated, but it had almost all the main elements: a group of people of a certain ethnicity, demarcating from the outside world and living by it's own rules inside the community. It was also a district where trying to talk english with someone wasn't much of a use. Not that the hispanic neighbourhood was lacking the ability to speak it, they just wouldn't do it. Most of the middle-class working families living here had a regular income, an intact family life and their own house or appartment.  
  
The only difference in comparison to other neighbourhoods was the strong national pride they had developed. They would only speak spanish, celebrate their local feasts and holidays and do their grocery shopping within the districts borders. And as much as the community seperated itself from the outside, the more intimate and strong the inner relationship was. They could count on each other and offered their assistance whenever needed.  
  
Living here meant being a part of a big family but it also meant the people knowing each other to an extend that wasn't always likable. In the end it probably was one of the most comfortable neighbourhoods to live at, if you didn't take your privacy too serious and if you were hispanic, of course.  
  
Jack had always asked himself why Danny choose to live here. Jack himself explained it with a certain extend of local patriotism and the ability to be open minded on other people. Integrating surely hadn't been that much of a problem for Danny. And somewhere beyond this particular reasons, more deeply and hidden, lay the wish for a feeling of having a family.  
  
In Jack's mind, he didn't really fit the community, but knowing how he lived here, especially in times of local celebrations, it seemed as if he had found what he searched for. He apparently felt comfortable.  
  
Right now Jack certainly didn't feel comfortable after all. It was the way people were looking at them. You could see the distrust and rejection in there eyes, it was akward. There was a hidden aggression in the way they behaved.  
  
Jack stopped in front of Danny's appartment. The first thing he noticed was Danny's car not being there; so chances that he would be at home after all seemed low. Jack and Sam left the car, he rang the bell and waited but nothing happened, so Jack got out his keys.  
  
It was the units policy that every agent had to leave a key to his living space so if he couldn't be reached by phone there was a chance to inform him otherwise that he were needed or, as the situation was now, to find out if something was wrong. It was a way to avoid critical situation, a security measure. And that policy was the reason for Jack having the key to Dannys appartment.  
  
He opened the door, allowing Sam to enter before him and gently closed it.  
  
"Danny!"  
  
He got no response, he obviously wasn't home. Sam had gone ahead into the living room. Her way of moving and scanning through the rooms was the same she had when they were working on a case. It seemed kind of morbid to him, but maybe it wasn't that wrong after all: Actually they didn't know where Danny was and why he hadn't appeared at the office. To his eyes everything seemed quite normal. He was interupped in his thoughts by Sam who called for him  
  
"Jack!"  
  
Before he could even move, his phone rang and for a moment he had the irrational feeling it could be Danny who called him. Maybe that was due to the fact that he stood in his appartment right now.  
  
"Malone!" he addressed impatiently.  
  
Martin was answering.  
  
"Jack? We found Linda Davis. One of the hospitals filled us in, she had an accident. She has a few broken bones and a concussion and didn't wake up by now, but doctors say she'll be fine!"  
  
Jack nooded, his feeling about the missing woman had been approved.  
  
"Call her mother!" he ordered.  
  
"Jack!"  
  
Sam was calling again, coming around the corner of the room and looked at him.  
  
"You should have a look at this!"  
  
TBC??? 


	4. Chapter 4

A.N.: Here we go: I'm finally giving some hints about what happened.  
There's a little bit of spanish in this chapter, but my spanish is even worse than my  
english, so I'm not sure if it's absolutely right. Please R+R.  
  
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Chapter 4:  
  
"Hang on!"  
  
Jack said to Martin and followed Sam into the living room. She pointed to the table – an opened magazine, a bottle of water, half emptied.  
  
"There's some dinner in the kitchen, too. Probably standing there since yesterday evening. I don't think he even took a bite!"  
  
Jack picked up the phone again. He still wasn't sure if he was overreacting, but from what he just saw, he decided it would be the proper reaction.  
  
"Come here as soon as you've reached Linda Davis' mother!"  
  
He gave Danny's address to Martin and broke off the connection. He looked right at Sam.  
  
"Looks like he fled from here head over heels. As if his every day life was surprised by something. Something that had been so important - so grave - that it couldn't wait."  
  
Jack didn't like that explanation.  
  
"I'll take a closer look!"  
  
He left Sam standing there and walked through the appartments' rooms slowly. It looked as if Sam's conjecture was confirmed: all the indications proved her right. Walking around Jack noticed that there was nothing missing: no clothing, no valuables- nothing. The longer he looked out for something proving her wrong, his suspicion grew, that they actually wouldn't find anything to do so. He could see the hints speaking for themselves, but he just couldn't believe and definitely couldn't explain what happened.  
  
The ringing of the door bell pulled him out of his thoughts.Vivian and Martin had arrived.  
  
"What happened?!?"  
  
It was the first question Vivian had on him, she looked as concerned as Sam had. He tried to sound absolutely calm when he answered.  
  
"I'm afraid Danny's missing."  
  
Jack took a deep breath and tried to concentrate.  
  
"Martin, Sam you are going to question the neighbours! Maybe they saw him leaving or talked to him. Vivian, get yourself a list of all the incoming phone calls for the last two days, cell and network. Danny..."  
  
God dammit! He thought. It had been a reaction clompletely out of habit.  
  
"It's okay!"  
  
Vivian assured him softly. Then she took up her phone and called the department. Jack accompanied Sam and Martin to the door.  
  
"Please, be gentle, it's a tricky kind of matter. This is a very inhabitant community, they react rather rejecting on any outer influences, perhaps even aggressive. So, be careful, otherwise we won't get any information!"  
  
Carla Yveres stood behind the curtain of her window, sceptically looking outside since the car had stopped in front of the appartment on the other side of the street. She asked herself what was going on over there, why the `visitors´ had a key to the appartment and what gave them the right to break in. She had been suspicious since her neighbour had left in a hurry yesterday evening and had reacted rather unwillingly to her attempt to get a hold on him. And now that these people had appeared, she barely could hold herself under control. She was curious and as another car arrived about twenty minutes later she had the strong wish of jumping out on the street to learn what was going on, but she stayed where she was and continued watching.  
  
"What are you doing there?"  
  
Her teenage daugther asked with a reproachful tone in her voice. She always had disliked her mother's exaggerated suspicion and curiosity and she let it show whenever she caught her in spying out the neighbourhood.  
  
"There's someone in the house!"  
  
Exclaiming this she tried to defend herself and turned around to look at her girl. She was wearing jogging pants and a cardigan and had bound up her long dark hair. She actually was supposed to be over there and clean up the appartment right now. It was her free week off work in a three to one week working routine. She was helping out in the neighbourhood with clean-up jobs and babysitting during that week and their neighbour from across the street was one of her `employers´.  
  
That had been her mother's main reason to stop him yesterday, when he left. He had told her there was no reason for her daughter to be at his place today. But he hadn't clearly explained why.  
  
She was interrupted by the door bell. Elena, her daughter, was just heading to the door, when she held her back.  
  
"I'll go!"  
  
She looked outside the window again, before heading to the door. Two of the people that had arrived a while ago, were standing in front of it. Her thoughts were racing: What did they want from her? She put the chain on the door and opened up just a little.  
  
"Si?"  
  
"Misses Yveres. FBI. I'm Agent Fitzgerald, this is Agent Spade. Can we come in for a few minutes?"  
  
She had sounded rather frosty when she had opened up and wasn't willing to let the FBI enter her house, but she knew that restraining the investigations of a federal agency was a crime. She had seen that on TV. Reluctantly she opened the door fully and allowed them to enter. She turned to Elena and gave her a look that clearly stated that she should keep her mouth shut. But she didn't react to it.  
  
"Sientase!"  
  
Sam gazed over at Martin. The young woman standing inside the room with them explained.  
  
"She asked you to sit down."  
  
Sam took a step towards here and adressed her quietly, so the other woman wouldn't hear it.  
  
"Doesn't she speak english?"  
  
A hard laugh emerged from the younger woman's lips.  
  
"She perfectly knows to speak english. She just wouldn't do it. Not here!"  
  
Sam wasn't completely sure what the girl meant but she nodded. Martin already sat down and addressed the mother. He felt strange in what he was doing.  
  
"Maybe you can help us, Misses Yveres: Your neighbour, Daniel Taylor: he is missing. Did you talk to him lately or did you see him leave?"  
  
The mother kept quiet, but her daughter answered instead.  
  
"He left yesterday at about nine p.m. I was supposed to clean up his place today, but he said there was no need for me to come. Didn't sound like he wanted to be back soon!"  
  
Martin took a few notes and Sam continued the questioning.  
  
"So, you talked to him?"  
  
"No, I didn't."  
  
The younger woman took a look at her mother. She obviously disliked her daughter being so open hearted in talking to the agents.  
  
"Dilelo!"  
  
The daugther insisted, but her mother just shook her head furiously.  
  
"Es la policia! Tienes que dilelo!"  
  
The mother kept silent for a few more moments and then was quickly saying some words in spanish without even looking at the two agents. Her daughter translated for them.  
  
"He said he needed to leave, there was something he had to do and he wouldn't come back. He said we shouldn't be worried. Everything was okay. Finally he told my mother I didn't have to come over today. That's it!"  
  
Sam had listened attentivly to the daughter's translation.  
  
"Did he say he wouldn't come home that night - for a few days?"  
  
The young women addressed her mother in spanish again, who answered impatiently.  
  
"She says that was exactly what he told her. He wouldn't come back. But she had no time to get any more detailed information. He left in a hurry and didn't even want to talk to her.  
  
"How did he seem to you?"  
  
It was the first time the mother really looked concerned and effected. Two words in spanish emerged from her lips. The daughters' translation followed.  
  
"Determined... and sad."  
  
Sam looked at Martin, she absolutely disliked what they had heard. She rose abruptly and Martin followed.  
  
"Thank you!"  
  
She said with a sweet tone in her voice, barely hiding her antipathy. She wanted to talk to Jack as soon as possible...  
  
TBC 


	5. Chapter 5

A.N.: Thanks for all your wonderful reviews! They've been as helpful as encouraging! I hope the following chapters will fit your expectations. So, here we go again. Please R+R.  
  
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Chapter 5:  
  
When they met back at the department again, Martin was the first to speak. He looked pretty sceptical anyway.  
  
"I don't wanna be rude, but what's all this expense for? We can't be sure that there wasn't just something completly unspectacular Danny had to do, something he didn't wanna talk about. Or he simply just took some days off? There could be a million reasons. Maybe this woman misunderstood him. What makes you all so certain something terrible has happened to him?"  
  
By now Jack's face had a slightly red tone. He was furious, absolutely furious and he could barely hold himself under control. They could hear it by the trembling in his voice.  
  
"I know Danny for six years now, since he started working here and he's always been reliable through all these years. I could always trust on him. I know more about him and his private life than anybody else in here and I know he loves this job. He definitely would have called to inform us if he had the chance to do so."  
  
He paused for a moment but couldn't hold back his anger any longer than.  
  
"So shut up an do what you're wanted to do!"  
  
A moment of complete silence followed.  
  
"Okay."  
  
Martin said subdued.  
  
"Vivian?"  
  
Jack didn't take any further notice of Martin's words. Vivian fetched the list of calls for the last 48 hours.  
  
"There's only one of them that's really noticable!"  
  
She showed him the list and pointed to the entry she meant.  
  
"State Prison of Illinois?"  
  
He was astonished as Vivian nodded.  
  
"I called them and they crosschecked with their lists of outgoing calls."  
  
"Erika?"  
  
"Erika. The prison records all the calls held from there. They'll send us a copy, it should be here this afternoon."  
  
Jack seemed wavering for a moment, than he notified his decision.  
  
"We're flying to Illinois. Erika's probably the last person he spoke to, so we're going to question her. Sam you'll be joining me. Vivian, Martin you're staying. Wait for the tape and call me as soon as you find out anything that'll help us."  
  
He took a pause.  
  
"Oh and Viv, try to find Andrea's current residence. In my mind she's the only reason Erika would have to call Danny."  
  
Vivian nodded and Jack turned to leave, but Sam wouldn't move an inch. She exchanged looks with Martin and crossed her arms before her chest. Her face's expression clearly stated one question: What do you know, that I don't?  
  
"We're working, Jack! And if we're supposed to do our job as good as we can, you can't restrain any information from us! So if you regard this as an official case, you need to tell us everything you know."  
  
Jack sighed soundlessly, she was right.  
  
"Not here!"  
  
They followed him into his private office...  
  
TBC 


	6. Chapter 6

Please R+R  
  
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Chapter 6:  
  
Next to gently closing the door, Jack leaned against his desk and looked at the expectant faces of his co-workers. He had trouble in finding a start. It was a delicate, displeasing and damn private topic. But Sam's words were absolutely true: the moment he considered Danny's disappearance an official case, privacy no longer existed.  
  
"About 4 years ago, she was 14 then, Andrea, Danny's youngest sister received a full scholarship for a private boarding-school in Illinois. 6 weeks after her arrival - she was on her way back from the library to the remote pupils' lodges - she was pursued, attacked and violated... The attacker tried to kill her afterwards, but he was interrupted by a security guard and fled. Andrea survived the attack, but she's unable to live her life on her own since that day. Right now she's living in a mental institution in Montana, I believe, but I'm not sure of that. Due to the fingerprints they found, police was able to identify the delinquent, but they never got to arrest him. Erika, Danny's older sister, she was about 28 at that time, found out about the results from the police investigation by the help of a good friend of hers and she was able to be there before them. She stabbed him, but he survived, although he's suffering from a permanent damage for the rest of his life. Erika herself was sentenced to six years of prison for mayhem. The delinquent, Leeland Brooks, had a long phase of recovery and rehabilitation. The trial on his crime is finally beginning these days, as far as I know, but nobody knows his current residence. He managed to leave the hospital he was in, gave them a false address and probably left the state. Wouldn't be a bad thing if we could find him, too."  
  
Jack stopped. Silence spread through the room.  
  
"Since when do you know this?"  
  
Sam asked anxious, receiving a surprised look for her question.  
  
"Since it happened."  
  
"He told you?!?"  
  
"No, actually he didn't..."  
  
He paused once again, sounding slightly embarrassed and didn't look at them, when he went on.  
  
"It was a piece of ill-luck more or less. The officer in charge called here to inform Danny what had happened to Andrea, but he wasn't here. We were in the midst of an operation and he couldn't be reached in another way. So I took the call for him. That's it."  
  
They could hear by the tone of his words how displeased he felt to talk about this topic, how much he disliked to break into Danny's private life that much.  
  
Sam had a rather professional expression on her face now, but her voice still was gentle as she went on questioning him.  
  
"How'd he react, when you told him?"  
  
"Absolutely calm. He'd been so goddamn calm and restrained, he scared the hell out of me."  
  
"And next?"  
  
"Nothing more. We never talked about it again. I heard about Erika's arrest and penalty from a friend at the state attorney's office in Chicago... Any other questions?"  
  
He got no response.  
  
"Allright then, let's have a start."  
  
TBC 


	7. Chapter 7

A.N.: Another short chapter, but they'll be longer soon, I promise! Please R+R.  
  
Chapter 7:  
  
Vivian held the tape of Erika's phone call to Danny in her hands. She wasn't sure, if she wanted to know, what they were talking about. She didn't know Danny as long as Jack did, but she knew him for some time. Certainly long enough to know that something grave had happened or he never would've reacted like this – never. She was pretty sure that the record of the call wouldn't just be crucial for the investigation's progress, but that it would reveal something, they didn't need to know. She believed that this and only this had been Danny's motivation not to tell them, he hadn't wanted them to find out about it, because it was none of their business.  
  
"What do we have?"  
  
Martin had appeared behind her and gave her an interested gaze, but she didn't realize it. So she winced when he suddenly addressed her and dragged her away from her thoughts. She lifted her hand holding the tape without saying a word.  
  
When they inserted the tape and started listening to it, the awkward feeling Vivian had earlier reappeared. She could hear Danny giving his name and Erika doing the same, but that was all they could understand in first place. Martin frowned and Vivian barely could hide a smile. He'd been cautious, cautious enough, to at least achieve some more delay, some more time he had ahead on them.  
  
"What...?"  
  
"Spanish, they speak spanish. We need an interpreter."  
  
"Isn't there someone in the unit, speaking enough of spanish to translate for us?"  
  
"As I said, we need an interpreter."  
  
Jack and Sam arrived at the State Prison of Illinois about three and a half hours later. It was a tall, grey building of the 30th – almost like a castle, surrounded by thick high concrete walls. It was raining. It was a depressing place, but that was something all prisons and institutions like this had in common. A penalty was not supposed to be a holiday trip – it was a punishment – that was what the builing expressed.  
  
They warden welcomed them, shaking their hands with a little too much enthusiasm for Jack's taste and invited them to follow him. They crossed the yard and entered the old main-building.  
  
"I've ordered one of the guards to take her to an interrogation room. She doesn't know who you are or what you came here for, so far. I told the guard just to let her know that she was having visitors. She didn't seem so happy about it. She's hiding something if you ask me!"  
  
Smart guy, Jack thought. The warden's overeagerness got on his nerves.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
Jack's voice sounded rather cool, but the warden still smiled looking from Jack to Sam and back, not understanding, so Jack made himself clear.  
  
"We're going to interview her alone. There's no need for you to stay with us."  
  
It wasn't a question to the warden, it was a request – Jack wanted him to leave. The warden seemed disappointed and stopped smiling, but he stepped aside.  
  
"As you wish."  
  
They entered the room...  
  
TBC 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:  
  
Frowning with his eyes closed, the agent held his hands to the headphones and listened intentivly. He seemed like someone who was at the edge of despair.  
  
Martin had crossed his arms before his chest, impatiently drumming on his left arm with the right hand's fingers. He just didn't get what took the agent so long, what was so difficult about translating the own mother language.  
  
Vivian came back with some cups of coffee right at that moment. In his mind she didn't even seem half as imaptient about their slow progress as he was.  
  
"He made any progress?"  
  
Martin shook his head to answer her question. Right then the agent took off the headphones and looked at them, he didn't seem sure of what to say.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Well, I can translate it."  
  
"Do it then."  
  
"It doesn't make any sense, Sir. The whole conversation doesn't make any sense!"  
  
Vivian seemed more interested all of a sudden.  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"They're talking about something specific, something agent Taylor recieved. As long as I don't know what it is, this doesn't make any sense."  
  
Martin was close to loosing his temper on the younger agent.  
  
"Would you just translate what they are talking about!"  
  
Before even saying a single word to Erika, Jack knew she probably wouldn't tell them anything. And he knew she had information she was hiding on them. He rarely had seen such an unfriendly, almost hostile expression on someone's face. And her whole bearing expressed that rejection, too.  
  
"Miss..."  
  
He didn't get any further.  
  
"You're with the FBI?"  
  
She sounded contemptuous. Jack stopped talking and gave her a suprised look. Where did she know that from, if the warden or the guard taking her here didn't tell her? He exchanged looks with Sam.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Whadda you want?"  
  
"You were making a phone call two days ago. You called your brother in New York. That's why we're here, we need you to tell us about it."  
  
"All prisoner's phone calls are recorded by the administration. Ask the warden for help, he'll do it most likely."  
  
This wasn't going to be easy. She was not gonna help them and she had nothing to loose. He on the other hand had nothing to threaten her with, so he wouldn't make her talk.  
  
"We could do that. But I wanna hear from you."  
  
She kept silent for a few more moments.  
  
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can tell you."  
  
Sam gave her an impatient look.  
  
"This is important Erika! We need your help."  
  
A knowing smile suddenly appeared on Erika's face.  
  
"He's working for you, isn't he?"  
  
Jack didn't say anything, he just gave her another puzzled look.  
  
"And now, he disappeared?"  
  
It had more of an establashing than of a question.  
  
"Yes. Does this change your opinion about talking to us?"  
  
"No, but there's something I can tell you."  
  
A sudden feeling of exitement rushed through him; Jack supressed the wish to ask her what it was, she wanted to tell them.  
  
"I can tell you there's no need to worry, everything's okay. I know what Danny's doing is important and it is the right thing. Just let him do it and stop searching for him."  
  
Jack gave her a hard look.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that!"  
  
"We have a problem than. A problem I can't help you with. I'm sorry."  
  
She rose and headed to the door, calling for a guard when Jack turned to her.  
  
"You understand that you probably put him into danger by not telling us what you know?"  
  
Erika turned around to answer, before the guard entered the room.  
  
"Danny's a grown up, he can decide by himself, live his life on his own. He knows what he's doing and he can calculate the risk emerging from it. He recieved a good training and he knows to protect himself. I fully trust on him and you should do the same."  
  
The young agent sighed soundlessly and gave Martin a look. He stopped the tape, rewinded it and played the first three sentences again.  
  
"They're both giving their names and he asks her what she wants."  
  
He played another few sentences.  
  
"She asks if he'd recieved the message and he tells her yes."  
  
The record continued.  
  
"She wants to know if he's prepared and if he has figured out what he wants to do and she gets another positive answer."  
  
He played the rest of the tape.  
  
"She tells him to be careful and gives him her best wishes. Finally he tells her she'll probably be visited by the FBI and she shouldn't say anything. That's it."  
  
"That doesn't help us."  
  
"No, it doesn't."  
  
TBC  
  
Please R+R 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:  
  
Leaving the prison after their nonsatisfying questioning on Erika, Sam addressed Jack.  
  
"We should visit Andrea in that clinic and talk to her."  
  
"What do you think is the good of it?"  
  
"Maybe she can help us."  
  
Once again she disliked his face's expression. It seemed like he knew something she didn't, something that she needed to know, that vitiated her suggestion, made it sound ridiculous.  
  
"What is it? What did you keep for yourself, too?"  
  
Jack looked at her insistently for a few moments, almost seeming offended. At least he looked at her in a quiet reproachful way.  
  
"I had good reason to do so, don't you think?"  
  
Her features got softer. Jack was still trying to protect Danny and his private life, but it was the wrong way. They were in desperate need of every information, they could get, if they wanted to find him.  
  
"Andrea's not capable of interviewing."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"As I said. She's living in a mental institution since the violation, having therapy and she didn't say a single word since that day. She has withdrawn from reality completely and she isn't able to live an independent life either."  
  
"How old is that rating of her mental state?"  
  
Sam was not willing to give up in first place and Jack took a moment to think about her question."  
  
"About half a year."  
  
"Half a year? There are a lot of things that can change in half a year, Jack!"  
  
"What's supposed to have changed that didn't change in the past three and a half years?"  
  
"I don't know, but if we don't go there and ask her, we won't find out. Something has definitely happened, otherwise Danny wouldn't have left head over feet without saying a word."  
  
Martin stood in front of the phone on his desk, not being sure, if he should make the call after all. He didn't know how to explain to Jack, that there hadn't been any progress, he wasn't even sure he was the right person to do this. He'd made himself more than unpopular to Jack and his opinion of all this expense not being much of a use, hadn't changed that much – although Jack had trounced him. He still believed, Danny had reacted to some urgent family call and as it was a private matter – as they just heard on the tape – he didn't tell anyone. There was no big deal about it. That was what made him so eager to find out about the tape's content, he was sure there hadn't been anything unusual Danny and Erika were talking about, but he had been wrong, cause the tape clearly stated something uncommon had happened, otherwise Erika wouldn't have told him to be careful.  
  
Vivian had wanted him to call Jack. She had given him the sweetest and most innocent look, he'd ever seen on her face and had asked him to call. He was sure she purposed something special with it. Probably she wanted to take the tension out of the situation, which had grown between Jack and him, due to their disagreement, wanted to clear their problems or simply wanted him to realize, that there was no use in fighting with Jack about what to do. Whatever her motivation was, it didn't make it easier for him to call. They hadn't made any noticable progress, so there was nothing he actually could tell as good news to Jack.  
  
The other thing that let him feel uneasy about calling, was the tape clearly stating him wrong – it wasn't as simple as he'd wanted it to be, not just some family matter – though he still wished it to be. But something definitely had happened, he'd heard it, just some minutes ago and they still had no clue what it was.  
  
Probably this was just about putting him in his place and having him to admit that he was wrong. He had to – sooner or later – and he didn't like that. Honestly even more than the fact, that they hadn't found out anything so far. Sighing soundlessly he picked up the phone and dailed.  
  
"Malone?"  
  
"Jack, this is Martin. We received the tape of the call and have gone through it. There hasn't been any progress."  
  
Jack didn't seem to be willing to give up so soon. As if their was any need to prove Martin's rating right himself.  
  
"What exactly were they talking about?"  
  
Martin recalled the tape's content once again.  
  
"She asks him if he'd received some message and if he's up to whatever he'd planned to do and gets a positive answer. She tells him to be careful and wishes him all the best. Finally he tells her, FBI will probably give her a visit and she should keep quiet. That's it."  
  
He could hear a supressed sigh on the other end of the line, but it sounded almost as if Jack had half expected this to happen. He silenced for some more moments.  
  
"Okay, obviously this didn't help us. I want you to fully concentrate the investigation on Brooks, Andrea's raper. I just don't get rid of the feeling he's somehow involved in this – the trial on the violation is up to start anyway. Maybe Danny found out something about Brooks or his current residence. Search for this guy! Right now, he's our only chance to find some more evidence."  
  
"How did it go with Erika?"  
  
He asked although – by Jack's statement about Brooks being their only option – he already knew the answer.  
  
"Not good."  
  
That was all Jack was willing to say and he didn't reveal any more information.  
  
"You found out anything about Andrea?"  
  
"She was transfered to an institution in Vermont shortly after her last psychological profile four month ago."  
  
"Alright, thanks. I think we gonna have to talk to her. Besides Brooks she's the only person I can imagine to have something to do with this, to be connected to Danny's disappearance. Although I don't think talking to her will be much of a use."  
  
His last sentence seemed to refer more to himself.  
  
"I'll give you a call a soon as we get any information on Brooks."  
  
Jack ended the call and gave Sam a discouraged gaze.  
  
"They haven't found out anything."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, we have no choice, but to use all our options and try to question Andrea, too."  
  
TBC 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:  
  
The mental institution in Vermont had an astonishing similarity with the prison in Illinois. High fences and walls, security cameras, doors with access codes, security pesonnel, an old main building lodging the clinic's administration and the patient's lodges in a wide garden.  
  
Only difference was, that this wasn't about keeping the inmates from the outside world, but keeping the harmful influences of the outside world from the inmates.  
  
Due to this, the institution's head Dr. Patrick Willkins was pretty unhappy, when Jack asked him to allow them, to interview Andrea for an FBI investigation. He really didn't like that idea.  
  
"You see, I don't think this is a good idea. The basic thought of this institution is to shield the patients from the outside world. Most of them are too traumatized to get along with the real world and Andrea's no exception. Although she has made a lot of encouraging progress in the last 4 month. But I don't think she's really prepared for the outside world and definitely not for a police investigation and a questioning! I'm enough worried about the events coming up on her in the next few weeks. We shouldn't put too much pressure on her."  
  
Jack didn't ask the doctor, what he meant with upcoming events, he was too fixed on convincing him.  
  
"Dr. Willkins, this is a very important investigation and right at the moment, we don't have any other possibility, but to question Andrea. I know it's not a good idea. I'm well informed about her mental state and it's clear to me, that it's a burden for her. But there is no other way. I wouldn't be asking you this, if it wouldn't be our only option.  
  
The doctor listened to him intentively. He nodded, it looked as if Jack had convinced him.  
  
"You should talk to Andrea's care staff. Her doctor isn't here today, but you can talk to her nurse. She doesn't have the same authorities and psycholgical knowledge as Andrea's doctor, but she is better informed about Andreas mental state and her progress in the last few weeks, her general health, than I am. If she says it's okay, I'll allow you to interview Andrea."  
  
It wasn't a permission so far, but it was a beginning. And considering the fact, that Jack had thought the suggestion of interviewing Andrea a bad idea, this compromise seemed alright.  
  
The nurse that welcomed them was a woman, about 40 years old, slightly overweight. She had a friendly, round face, grey eyes and shoulderlong brown hair. Dr. Willkins introduced her as Miss Christa Jensen.  
  
"These are agent Malone and agent Spade from the FBI. They would like to talk to Andrea."  
  
Jack disliked something about her reaction. She supressed a jerk with great difficult and needed some seconds to react.  
  
"Alright."  
  
He could hear the slight trembling in her voice; Jack's uneasy felling was growing. He exchanged looks with Sam and saw how her noding slightly. She'd realized it, too.  
  
"I want you to consider carefully if Andrea's stable enough for such a conversation. If not, try to help the agents in any other way possible, you're informed about everything. I'll leave you alone then."  
  
The nurse gave the doctor a nod and afterwards looked at Sam and Jack nervously. Sam was taking the initiative, Jack obviously wasn't much interested in getting a chance for their interview.  
  
"So, do you think, we can talk to her?"  
  
"Well – basically I think that's okay."  
  
"Basically?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Sam didn't like, that the nurse was so unwilling about talking to them. She obviously was hiding something. Sam tried to react more ofensive.  
  
"So, can we see her."  
  
"No!"  
  
The reaction was more tempered. She caught Jack's curiosity.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
The nurse tried to calm herself. Her outbreak hadn't been planed.  
  
"Well – you could see her.  
  
Sam was impatient.  
  
"But?"  
  
"But she's not here."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean? She's not here?"  
  
"Oh – she was transfered to another institution, temporary."  
  
""What for?"  
  
"Some psychological tests."  
  
She answered rapidly to her questions, almost as if she had learned the answers by heart, as if she knew what they would ask her. The uneasy feeling became a knot in the stomach. Jack tried to disconcert her by asking her some more question. Perhaps she would blab it out and tell them something, she actually didn't want to by accident. But maybe he was just a little paranoid, perhaps she was telling the truth. They would find out.  
  
"Why didn't Dr. Willkins tell us?"  
  
"Oh – I think he doesn't know by now. Probably he hasn't even seen the documents for Andrea's transfer - bureaucracy you know."  
  
She laughed nervously, Jack gave her a false smile, too.  
  
"I understand, but shouldn't he have granted her transfer?"  
  
"No, no. Andrea's doctor has granted it, that's okay."  
  
Another quick answer.  
  
"I thought her doctor's not here?"  
  
"She already gave her okay a few days ago. She knew the transfer was up to come."  
  
Jack's suggestion was aproved, she was entangling herself in her words, she was lying.  
  
"And Andrea's doctor, didn't tell Dr, Willkins, although she knew about the transfer all the time?"  
  
"She had a lot to do!"  
  
Jack didn't want the situation to escalate.  
  
"Can we see the documents?"  
  
He asked softly, the nurse still seemed unwilling.  
  
"As I said, they're still on their way to Dr. Willkins, somewhere in the administration building."  
  
He wouldn't give up so soon. He gave her another friendly smile.  
  
"You surely have a copy, don't you? For the files?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Would you look it up, please?"  
  
The nurse thought about it for a moment, finally she gave in.  
  
"Yeah, sure." 


	11. Chapter 11

A.N.: First of all: sorry for the extra long wait, but I had some very busy weeks last month.I  
know this one is pretty short, but the next chapter is already translated and will be  
longer, I promise. Please RR none the less!  
  
Chapter 11:  
  
When they came back from Vermont, Jack first ordered the examination of the documents the nurse had given to them so unwillingly. He had given them to Martin, who brought them to a forensic analysis.  
  
Jack saw, by the expression on Martins face, that this delivery job didn't please him at all. But he didn't complain and Jack didn't take any further notice of it. Martin had gone too far with his outbreak about their work, in this case not being much of a use. And as he hadn't been willing to consider their investigation an official case, Jack treated him exactly like this. He knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do. He could use Martin's abilities way better than this on other things they had to do. But this wasn't about someone he didn't know, it was about Danny – somebody, as he said, he knew for long and whom he knew well. Therefore he didn't react that objective to any kind of criticism from others concerning his own behaviour and his way of working in this case. He reacted emotional and Martin had to get along with that now.  
  
Apart from the examination, Jack had ordered to check the nurse's testemony and had asked Vivian to call the institution Andrea had been transfered to, to ask if she in fact ever got there. He was pretty sure the nurse had lied to them. He didn't know how far and first of all he didn't know what consequences emerged from it, but she ceratinly had lied.  
  
She'd been nervous and hectic, almost afraid. He just asked himself if she'd lied to protect Andrea or to protect someone else. The thought of her lying to cover up Andrea's disappearance, because she was in league with Brooks and he was responsible for it, made him sick. He didn't even wanna think about how Andrea felt, what she had to go through, when she had fallen into his hands, but the possibilty was present.  
  
It would explain Danny's disappearance and it would fit the content of the conversation between him and Erika.  
  
"Jack?"  
  
He turned around to Vivian, who had just addressed him.  
  
"We've checked the documents about Andrea's transfer to that other clinic. She never got there. The documents are a forging, Jack."  
  
His suspision had been aproved. The question emerging was, if it meant something good or something bad.  
  
TBC 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:  
  
"What about finally telling us the truth?"  
  
The expression on Jack's face didn't suit his friendly tone at all.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean? The truth? I already told you, Andrea temporary..."  
  
Jack interrupted her, the friendly tone had vanished from his voice.  
  
"I know what you told us, the thing is : you lied to us. Because Andrea never was transfered to that clinic."  
  
The nurse seemed scared for a moment.  
  
"Of course she was! You've seen the documents yourself!"  
  
Jack seemed to intentively think about this for a moment.  
  
"Yes, we did, the problem with this documents is, that they have no validity, they are forged, without any legal effect." "That's nonsense!"  
  
She still wasn't willing to give in.  
  
"Did you ever realize that these documents were never signed by a doctor? There's not a single evidence , that a doctor has granted the temporary transfer. There's not even prove that a doctor ever has seen these documents before Andrea had disappeared. That's a little strange, don't you think?"  
  
She didn't answer. He slowly broke down her defence, broke through her.  
  
„To be exact, there's only your signature and only - and considering the size of the clinic's administration this is really strange - your fingerprints on this paper."  
  
She still kept silent, she seemed to search for a believable answer to this, for another lie.  
  
"I don't know what you did and I don't know why, but I know that if Andrea will be harmed in any way, you're the one being responsible for it. You were competent for her care and safety. You were the one rather initiating or at least covered her disappearance. You are responsible! And ... you left a conclusive evidence for your actions."  
  
Jack tapped to the document. The nurse looked scared to him now.  
  
"Listen, I can't tell you where she is.  
  
Jack gave her an interested look.  
  
"Do you know how many years of imprisonment you will be sentenced to for assistance to murder or manslaughter in the second degree? You know that!"  
  
The nurse winced.  
  
"She is not in danger!"  
  
Jack bend himself down, closer to her.  
  
"You have released Andrea from the mental institution with the help of some forged documents. You have given her into the custody of another person. You've pulled her out of her daily routine and her usual surrounding. You have no possiblities to check her health state or to take care of her taking her medicaments . You've send her to a world she hasn't been in for years now and you didn't hear anything of her since that. You've let a young, psychologicaly instable woman depending on others people's help enter the real world all alone. How the hell do you wanna know, that she's not in danger?"  
  
The nurse breathed heavily now, she was on the edge of crying.  
  
"I just tried to protect her."  
  
"Of whom?"  
  
She didn't say a word.  
  
"Of whom!"  
  
„Of Leeland Brooks."  
  
He got her, he had finally broken through her defence.  
  
"What made you believe Andrea needed to be protected from Brooks?"  
  
The nurse hesitated for some more moments, than she took her handbag and searched for something – a letter. She handed it to Jack, who took it.  
  
"Because she received this from him."  
  
She pointed to the letter in Jacks hands. It was some lines long, written by computer and without any signature.  
  
"What makes you so sure it was Brooks, writing to her?"  
  
The nurse gave him a sad look.  
  
"Who else would write such horrible things?"  
  
Jack read the letter  
  
Hello my dear you still remember the day when we first met you'd been good and I know you liked it but now you're a real bad girl tryin to talk me into but you won't get a chance there's nowhere to run, there's nowhere to hide wherever you will be, I will find you be prepared for what's to come I will show you what true suffering means  
  
Jack swallowed hard after reading, the nurse was right – it was horrible  
  
"What did you do?" "I was so ununtterably worried about her. I panicked, I knew she wasn't safe where she was any longer."  
  
Jack looked her, finding his interest once again.  
  
"How's that?"  
  
„Take a look at the second page of the letter."  
  
He flipped back the first page of the letter and looked at a b/w picture of Andrea sleeping.  
  
„That was taken in her room, in her room in the clinic."  
  
Jack understood, but the nurse said it out loud none the less. "Nobody, except for me, the rest of the care personel and the doctors are allowed to enter these tooms. No one! Such a picture should never have been taken. Somebody broke into the institution and entered her bedroom. He could've killed her! She wasn't safe there any more."  
  
"And that made you decide to send her away?"  
  
„Yeah. The only relative of which I knew where she was, was Erika. So I gave the letter and a short note to a friend of mine who works for the state prison. She gave it to Erika. Some days later I received a message from her. She asked me to send a copy of the letter to her brother in New York. She wanted to call him afterwards and ask him for help. Forging the documents for Andrea's transfer was her idea, too. So nobody would become suspicious."  
  
Sam interrupted the nurse with another entitled question.  
  
„Why didn't you call the police?"  
  
The nurse gave an sarcastically amused look.  
  
„The police? This guy has broken into her bedroom and took some pictures of her! Police couldn't have protected her either."  
  
Sam waved through the room with her hand.  
  
„What about us? What about the FBI?"  
  
The nurse crossed her arms before her chest and gave her a hard look.  
  
„Her brother works for FBI."  
  
Jack made Sam stop questioning the nurse with a movement of his hand.  
  
"And he picked her up?"  
  
"Yeah, yesterday morning at about five."  
  
They were so close to a solution.  
  
"Do you know where they wanted to go?"  
  
"No."  
  
Jack looked at her intentively, she was telling the truth. Something else came to his mind. "Did Andrea ever get to see the letter?"  
  
The nurse looked at him, being surprised.  
  
"For heaven's sake – no! Our patients' mails are inspected before they are distributed to them. To avoid that they get upset about something too much. If she would have seen and read this, she probably would never be able to give her testemony. It would have thrown her back years on her way of recovery."  
  
Jack repeated the nurses' words once again, seeming surprised.  
  
"Make a statement?"  
  
"Didn't you kow? Andreas case will come up for trial this month. She received the citation for next Thursday, to give her testemony. She is the main witness of the prosecution. The sentence stands and falls with her statement, cause all of the other evidence isn't sufficient. Brooks will be called to account for what he has done to her."  
  
Jack realized the importance of the situation all of a sudden. Andrea was the only one capable of identifying Brooks, the only one who could charge him and send him to prison. And Brooks tried to keep his freedom. He probably had just speculated that getting and reading the letter would scare Andrea that much and throw her back in her psychological recovery, that she wouldn't be able to give her testemony. He had the chance to kill her, as he charged someone with taking the pictures of Andrea, but he didn't do it. But now Andrea had disappeared and she had never read the letter. She was still willing and able to give her testemony in front of a jury and he was still in danger of losing his freedom. The question emerging was, how far, now that his first plan had failed, Brooks was willing to go to keep it.  
  
"Thank you, you've helped us a lot."  
  
He finally said, some of the friendliness had returned to Jack's voice again ... 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:  
  
„We need to find them – as soon as possible."  
  
Jack stated after Andrea's nurse had left his office. Sam was still in her thoughts she had earlier in which Jack had interrupted her.  
  
"Why did he do this? Why didn't he tell us anything about it?"  
  
"To protect Andrea."  
  
"Oh, come on, Jack. That the nurse didn't know it any better – that's okay – but Danny? Who is supposed to protect a witness better than FBI?"  
  
Sam had almost looked amused by Jack's answer and he was fully getting her argumentation.  
  
"Sam, if somebody can break into a private, closed, mental institution with such an amount of security measure without being discovered or even seen, don't you think they can also find a witness being protected by the FBI?"  
  
Sam hesitated, she hadn't really thought about this side of the situation by now.  
  
"We are a public authority, Sam, we leave traces – forcefully. Our actions are duplicatable because we are forced to documentate what we do. You just have to find someone who is good enough to break into the intern net of FBI – and god knows these people exist – to find someone. Maybe she wouldn't have been safe here."  
  
"Chances that something would've happened to her under the protection of FBI are much lower than that something will happen to her out there. He endangered her life by deciding like this. Hers and his own, too!"  
  
Although Sam seemed to be mostly furious, he knew she was deeply concerned about Danny in first place.  
  
"I know that too. But if this was about the safety of your family, would you give the security of a loved one into another persons' hands, would you give away control, if you couldn't be a hundred percent sure that this person can be protected and nothing will happen to her?"  
  
"No, probably not..."  
  
She finally gave in, but Jack hadn't finished his work of persuasion by now.  
  
"And as an aggravating thing, there is the fact of Andrea being a very special case. There is a reason why she has a female nurse and doctor. She won't allow any man near herself. She didn't even allow Danny – her own brother – to get close to her for over a year and a half. She doesn't because she wouldn't trust anyone. Even the bunch of people she has learned to trust in again is extremly limited. Even if we had wanted to protect her, I hardly believe she would've given us the chance to do so."  
  
Sam still seemed sceptical.  
  
"So what? You wanna tell me you think it's okay what he has done?"  
  
It sounded more like an offence than a question.  
  
"Of course not. I just say I can understand it. but you're right: he probably endangered Andrea more with this than he would if he would've told us and asked for help. And that's why we have to find them before somebody else does.The only problem is, that we have no idea where we should search for them. And there is no one who would be willing to help us."  
  
Sam tried a smile and Jack asked himself why she did so, what it meant.  
  
"If we can't find them, though we have all this abilities and possibilities, maybe it wasn't that wrong Danny took her with him. He has an invaluable advantage..."  
  
"He knows how to search for someone, how to find someone."  
  
Jack finished the sentence for her.  
  
"And cause of that he knows what he isn't allowed to do, if he doesn't want to be found. He's good in doing his job, Jack. And – believe me – if he doesn't want to be found, we won't find him anyway."  
  
Sam brought the thought to an end.  
  
"The only still important question is : if we can't, does it automatically mean, these people who are prosecuting Andrea can't, too?"  
  
He could see by the expression on Sam's face, that she wasn't sure about this, and complete certainity was something that had absolute priority in this case.  
  
"Maybe we should talk to Erika once again, confront her with the things we found out. Maybe she breaks in, maybe she tells us what she knows." 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:  
  
Erika seemed almost amused when the two agents entered the interrogation room for the second time in two days to talk to her.  
  
"Nice to see you again."  
  
It sounded more than cynical, but she seemed to have a lot of fun with it. Probably because she knew they hadn't gotten any further with their investigation.  
  
"What can I do for you this time?"  
  
Jack didn't like her bumptious appearance, she was much too sure about herself. It would only make it harder to get information from her. But he wasn't willing to let her self-righteous way of behaving get him out of his concept. He tried directly and open.  
  
"You could tell us where your brother and Andrea have gone to."  
  
She smiled.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
She said simply, sounding so carefree as if there was nothing at risk. Sam tried again in a more psychological, emotional way.  
  
"We need your help, Erika."  
  
She turned to face Sam.  
  
"I already told you yesterday – I can't help you."  
  
She still stayed completely calm and slowly she started to make Jack furious with that.  
  
"Even if that means that you would put both of them into danger."  
  
She smiled again.  
  
"But that's not happening."  
  
Complete carelessness could be heard in her voice. He was losing his patience on her, on her way of behaving, on her complacence and arrogance, her carelessness and naivete and her complete and blind trust in her brothers' abilities.  
  
"We know that Daniel has taken Andrea with him from that clinic!"  
  
Jack finally revealed. This cat-and-mouse-game with Erika got on his nerves more and more. There was too much at risk. They didn't have the time to match with each other's strength and test who would bear up longer. He needed the information she had. But his little outburst and the fact that they knew why Danny had disappeared didn't seem to agitate Erika at all.  
  
"Good."  
  
She said, as if it was self-evident. Jack wished to scream loudly, the way Erika put her brother and sister into danger by her silence and her stubborness – knowingly and without turning a hair – made him feel rage. He asked himself how she could be so bullheaded and blimkered. All of a sudden a thought came to his mind: maybe she hadn't realized she was putting the two into danger. Maybe she hadn't realized the letter was the only thing Brooks would send to silence Andrea. Maybe she hadn't realized how far Brooks was willing to go. She knew Brooks. She had stood eye to eye with him, had tried to kill him. But obviously she didn't consider him to be that dangerous, he could actually find Danny and Andrea. Not even talking about hurting them. To her eyes it had been more like a precaution to get Andrea out of that clinic, than actual protection. Erika condemned Brooks. She felt there was nothing about him that justified his life going on. Otherwise she wouldn't have done what she had done and what she was in prison for now. This needed to be put into consideration when judging about her estimation of Brooks' abilities. She simply didn't think him capable of sorting out such complex plans and finding her two relatives. She felt superior to him. That also explained her uncompromising behavior – she didn't see the danger. And that was her fatal mistake.  
  
"Brooks hired someone to break into the mental institution and take a picture of Andrea and the same person is still searching for her. He has hired someone skillfull enough to get into a highly protected clinic, almost like a prison without even being seen and he searches for Andrea! Brooks isn't willing to go to prison, whatever it'll cost. He won't give up, not until he has found Andrea. And as the situation has proceeded by now, it could – most likely – happen. What do you think will happen to her then? Or to your brother? Do you really believe Brooks needs any witnesses?"  
  
Sam gave him a horror-striken look. He had no authority to tell the results of their investigation to Erika. Especially not if it considered such a delicate theme as the rapist of her younger sister, who she tried to kill. She didn't even get a chance to intervent, he already had said it out loud. She just asked herself what – the hell – had been his motivation. She then looked at Erika and she knew. For the first time since they had entered this room, her face was showing an emotion, a reaction. She was afraid, you could see it in her eyes. Jack had made it clear to her – her family actually was in danger and now she was anxious for them. Jack tried to break through her defense once again.  
  
"Your brother and sister are in danger, Erika! In extreme danger. It' s most likely that Brooks can find them. And he wants nothing more but to silence them. And by all given respect you have for Danny and his skills – he can never protect her all alone."  
  
Erika looked at him intentively, with eyes wide open. He could hear her breathe deeply and Sam saw how she was clenching her fists. She seemed to realize – more and more, that Jack was right. His face's expression got softer, his voice lowered.  
  
"Help us Erika, help us to find your family. Help us to find them before Brooks does, before it's too late. Help us!"  
  
She looked at him and the intensity hadn't vanished from her eyes, but it had mixed with something that looked like desperation to Jack. He didn't like that look, didn't like it after all.  
  
"I can't."  
  
She said quietly and got an almost quiet response.  
  
"You have to."  
  
All of a sudden all of the emotion she had held back were breaking free. She jumped out of her chair, bowed over the table standing between them and screamed at Jack.  
  
"I can't, even if I would want to and I do! But I can't help you! I don't know where they are!"  
  
She was breathing heavily and he could see that she was close to tears. She sank back to her chair, covered her face in her hands and started to cry silently. Sam rose, went round the table and handed her a handkerchief. She took it – without saying a word - and wiped the tears from her face.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
Sam asked in a calm and soft voice. Erika looked at her directly.  
  
"As a precaution, so I couldn't reveal anything. There is a specific reason for Danny warning me about your visit. He knew I couldn't keep my mouth shut and I would give in sooner or later. He knew it! So he didn't tell me where he would take Andrea. He didn't tell me! I don't know where they are!"  
  
"It's okay."  
  
Jack assured her in a soothing voice. Sam lay a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
She said simply. Erika gave her another desperate look.  
  
"I don't believe Thanks´ is the right word to say."... 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Vivian shot Martin an expectant gaze after he put down the phone. She didn't even have to ask the word "And?", she could see the answer in his face.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
He said simply and she definitely didn't like that answer.  
  
"Absolutely nothing?"  
  
"Absolutely. The last known address, Brooks left at that clinic, doesn't exist. Due to the testimonies of his two sisters and his mother, he didn't contact his family either. Neither jurisdiction nor FBI knows anything about his current residence. The only thing we know for sure is, that he didn't leave the country – at last not in a legal way."  
  
"I haven't been any more lucky. Former friends were hard to find and the couple of them I've found haven't been very cooperative. As a final result they all told me they don't know where he is."  
  
Martin resumed the results.  
  
"So: he doesn't have a current residence, no address, no phone and no bank account – at least none of which we know. His family doesn't have any contact to him, and the friends he has are covering him. We have no idea where he is, which resources he has or what he is going to do next and we've almost no chances to find out anything more."  
  
Vivian took a moment to think about it before she answered.  
  
"That's pretty much it."  
  
After Sam and Jack had left the prison – standing at the parking area now – she kept him from getting into the car. She still was furious about his actions, about using the interrogation's result – without filling her in or even giving her a sign of what he would do – to force Erika to testify. But she tried to ignore her anger for the moment. There was enough time to complain about this later. For it had worked. There were other things that had top priority, right now.  
  
"Do you believe her?"  
  
"I'm not sure. This whole emotional outbreak could've been faked, to lead us to wrong conclusions, to get rid of us. But she was right when she told us, she had difficulties to control herself. She reacts much too emotional, too impulsive, without thinking about the consequences. You can see it in her behavior towards Brooks... I believe she is telling the truth."  
  
Sam nodded approvingly, she didn't feel any different. She considered Erika's testimony to be true, too. Just that it didn't help them in any way.  
  
"So, what are we going to do next?"  
  
"We've to concentrate on Brooks. Everything leads to him. If we'll find the person he hired to take the picture of Andrea, then we'll find her and Danny too." They weren't even back from Illinois one and a half hours and back in the department for 30 minutes and all they had heard were bad, discouraging news. Martin had filled in Jack and Sam about the investigation considering Brooks habitation. All their investigation hadn't let to any conclusion up to that point, and Jack didn't like that fact after all.  
  
They were sitting at the conference table after Martin had finished his lecture about the - not existent - results considering Leeland Brooks.  
  
"We're not getting any further."  
  
Jack stated. It sounded emotionless, but they could see in his face, that "emotionless" was the last thing he was. "Furious" was the word that got closest to it, because he was right: they weren´t getting even a single step closer to a result. But that wasn't all he was feeling and they could see this in his face, too. He seemed to quarrel with himself, to weigh chances against each other. He was thinking about something intensively, something only he knew about and something – that was the way Sam was interpreting his behavior - he hadn't told them anything about by now and actually didn't want to talk about. He was holding back information once again.  
  
"So, what do you propose?"  
  
Sam tried to force him to answer, to tell them what he knew. But she didn't want to push too hard. She knew, any hint to the fact, that he had to tell them about it and that he was endangering both – Danny's and Andrea's safety – if he didn't, was unnecessary. He knew that himself, that was why he was thinking so hard.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
He sounded seriously uncertain about what to do and a tone of desperation could also be heard in his voice.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
He murmured more to himself this time. He looked at Sam again who – by now – was on the edge of actually forcing him to tell her what was bothering him.  
  
"Give me some time. Maybe there's another opportunity to find out something about Danny's and Andrea's current residence."  
  
He didn't even wait for her reaction but went to his private office to make some phone calls. Sam watched the door closing behind him...


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:  
  
"Jack, we found something!"  
  
It was Vivian again, who had good news for him. Expectantly he looked into her sparkling face – that had to be really good news.  
  
"Brooks. While checking the phone bill of his elder sister, we found some conspicuities. Shortly after his release from the rehabilitation-center, some phone-calls were held to New Orleans from her place. We checked the number – it's a detective, a private detective. "  
  
Jack most likely wanted to fall into her arms. After all the backstrokes of the past few hours, this was a really good piece of information. They had a clue, a clue to Brooks, to his connection to another person. The person that probably had taken the pictures of Andrea and now was searching for her habitation. They had something they could start with again. Something to get the investigation going again and finally find Danny and Andrea.  
  
"Who is this detective?"  
  
"Laurence Bellet, 46 years old, studied law and – according to FBI files – worked as a lawyer for the Mafia for years. He quit four years ago and has a good working bureau as a private detective in downtown New Orleans. He has been and still is involved in a lot of not really legal, slightly criminal jobs, but they never got to arrest him for any of it – they couldn't prove his participation. The bureau in New Orleans believes he is still working for the Mafia. Concerning his detective work, he isn't that much prissy. He has no qualms to blackmail people, to threaten them or to let them be injured by third people he hires, to get the information he needs. And of course - due to his years of work for the Mafia – he has good contacts. He earns a lot of money with his job – around 150.000 $ a year and he doesn't overwork himself for that."  
  
Jack frowned and looked at Vivian, this didn't sound good or constructive at all. It only proved his suspicion that maybe they wouldn't find Danny and Andrea before Brooks did.  
  
"How did such a guy get into contact with Brooks? He can't even pay him."  
  
Vivian also had an answer to this question.  
  
"He doesn't have to. I went through the old year books of Brook's high school. He and Bellet know each other, they went to school together. Maybe Bellet owes his old friend a favor." Jack nodded slowly, he seemed to be deeply in thought.  
  
"Yes, maybe..."  
  
"I talked to the department in New Orleans. Bellet is under constant observation..."  
  
That she didn't go on wasn't a good sign in Jack's mind.  
  
"Is there any hint of a contact between Brooks and Bellet apart from the phone call?"  
  
Vivian gave him a resigning look. He knew the answer before she told him. "No, but we're getting a tape of his call as soon as possible. Bellet seems to have found a way to operate out of FBI observation. He seems to know about it. But in any case, he had contact with Brooks, the bureau in New Orleans told me, that Bellet is working with a bunch of helpers right now, so he himself won't get into the vision of FBI interrogation. One of them probably has talked to Brooks by Bellet's order. Unfortunately the capacities of the department down there aren´t that big, so they could observe all of Bellets' helpers. But they try to find out who of them has been talking to Brooks. Maybe we're lucky."  
  
Jack still was deeply lost in thought, he didn't share her bit of confidence.  
  
"Good luck alone won't help us."  
  
He stated and Vivian gave him an intense look.  
  
"I know that, but what are we supposed to do instead?"  
  
Jack hesitated for a moment and breathed in deeply.  
  
"We need to find out about Danny's and Andrea's residence in another way."  
  
He said vaguely. She didn't like his answer to be so uncertain.  
  
"How? Except for Brooks, we don't have any more clues."  
  
"I thought about it. There aren't many places Danny can take Andrea to. Where – due to her psychological constitution - she won't be afraid. Something she has at least a vague memory of and that's not connected to the violation. We just have to use the system of disqualification."  
  
Vivian gave him a skeptic gaze.  
  
"Jack, I don't like asking you this, but do you believe you know enough about Danny and his family to make out such a place?"  
  
He didn't even seem hurt.  
  
"No, probably not, but we have ways and possibilities to find out none the less."  
  
"So you wanna try to find them through Andrea's files at youth welfare office?"  
  
She tried to understand Jack's thoughts. But he just shook his head slowly. He still seemed deeply in thought.  
  
"No. I think we have to dig deeper, deeper in the past. Andrea's files are too easy to get. It would've been the first thing Brooks and Bellet would've thought of. Danny never would've risked that. He knew how far Brooks was willing to go, how close he had already been to Andrea. It needed to be a place hard to find, hard to detect. I think we need to concentrate on the time before Andrea got into contact with youth farewell office and foster families, before the files. Before she received a new family, a new last name, the last name of her foster family, before Danny took the last name of his foster family." Vivian's skeptic was still there. "That's more than 15 years ago, Jack. 15 years! You know how difficult it is to even find some useful information if the events happened that long ago? And even if there are – where do you wanna start? What do you really know about this time, how much has Danny told you about it?"  
  
Jack didn't look at her – he knew she was right.  
  
"To be honest with you, it's not that much that I know. It doesn't exceed the fact, that his parents died in a car accident."  
  
The skeptic in her eyes mixed with disbelief.  
  
"That's not enough, Jack! You don't even know when or where exactly it happened. You don't even have a family name!"  
  
She hesitated for a moment.  
  
"And you don't want to. You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."  
  
It was a statement and he didn't disagree to it.  
  
"But you have no choice!"  
  
He suddenly heard a third person announce. Someone, he hadn't want to hear their quarrel, their discussion. He looked up immediately – it was Sam. She stood in the doorway with her arms crossed before her chest and an angry, almost furious expression on her face and stared at him intensively.  
  
She had seen how Vivian entered Jack's office and closed the door behind her from her desk. She already knew what Vivian had found out, she had heard her conversation with the bureau in New Orleans. It wasn't much and not very encouraging, but it was a start. She was interested to see Jack's reaction, if he would share Vivian's confidence. She doubted it, but she observed their conversation none the less. His reaction was like she had expected it and she was about to turn back to her desk, when she saw Vivian's exited hand movement into Jack's direction.  
  
Sam frowned. Why were they arguing? There was nothing about Vivian's investigation results that justified a discussion. She took a closer look and realized the argumentation getting more intense. She asked herself what was going on in there, what made the two act like this, just because of a simple call Vivian had made. Because of such simple information. Obviously the two had completely different opinions and Sam believed she had a right to know why they were arguing. After all they were all working together in this case. The memory of Jack being so thoughtful, how he seemed to argue with himself and her feeling that he was holding something back on them, came back to her mind. Without clearly thinking about it, she rose from her desk and went to the closed door of Jack's office. She didn't even take a second to think about this to be indiscreet or wrong of her. She softly opened the door and could hear Vivian's accuse to Jack.  
  
"You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."  
  
She immediately knew this was about Danny. Her wish to force Jack to leave his feelings and his honor behind to finally achieve some progress, to find Danny, to protect him got the upper hand in her and made her say what she did. Jack looked at her in disbelief, he didn't react to her. At least for a while, but finally he nodded slowly and barely visible.  
  
"Alright."  
  
He said quietly, kept silent again and repeated his words finally.  
  
"Alright, I think I know someone who can help us. I want you to go on with the investigation still focusing on Brooks and this guy Bellet. I'll see what I can do to make out Danny's and Andrea's habitation. I'll inform you as soon as I get any new information."  
  
He noticed, Sam's reproachful look lay on him.  
  
"I promise..." 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:  
  
Vivian and Sam left Jack's office together. Vivian closed the door softly and Sam wasn't willing to even wait until they were out of Jack's sight and sound completely. She was so indescribably furious about their behavior.  
  
"Did you know it? Did you know he was holding back information? Did you know this!"  
  
Vivian put up her hands allying. Before she could answer her question, Martin had joined them too, looking puzzled.  
  
"What's going on between you two?"  
  
He seemed to have seen Sam's outbreak, who shot him a short look and then looked back to Vivian as she answered his question.  
  
"Jack was holding back information on us. And she knew it!"  
  
Vivian first looked at Sam, then to Martin and finally back to Sam. She tried to stay calm.  
  
"That's not true. I didn't know Jack was holding something back. He just confronted me with that a minute ago."  
  
Sam seemed to calm down a bit by her statement, but Martin looked even more puzzled.  
  
"What the hell is this all about?"  
  
Sam looked at Vivian, she still seemed willing to attack her, but at last she was listening what she had to say. She wasn't completely into the facts of what Jack wanted to do next, too. Vivian repeated the content of their debate.  
  
"So he's trying to find another way to get some information and he wants to do it himself, so Danny's private life or the bit of it that is still left of it due to that investigation, is protected and not talked about in front of the whole department. So let Jack do his work and we do ours! Standing around here and arguing won't get us any further!"  
  
She finished her resume and got a confiding nod from her co-worker's, although none of them really looked comfortable. She realized Jack had made a pretty big mistake, even if it was for Danny's sake. But he had abused their trust in him and it probably would take some time until these wounds would heal. But it wasn't the time to think about this now. They had more urgent problems.  
  
After Vivian had closed the door and he couldn't see the two women any more, Jack took the phone. He hesitated for a moment and then dialed the number of the person he hoped to get help from, get a hint from. He heard the ringing – two times, three times.  
  
"Alvarez?"  
  
Someone stated on the other end of the line.  
  
"Rafael Alvarez?"  
  
"Yeah.  
  
"This is agent Malone, FBI. I need an information from you, about your brother – Daniel. It's very important."  
  
The line was silent for some more moments.  
  
"Is he working for you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Is he in trouble?"  
  
A sense of worry could be heard in his voice. Jack knew he wasn't allowed to give this information to him. That he had done it while interviewing Erika, already had been against every internal instruction.  
  
"Something like that. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything more."  
  
He seemed to be okay with Jack's explanation.  
  
"Okay, if you say that. What can I do for you?"  
  
"I need some information about Danny's family..."  
  
Rafael interrupted him.  
  
"I don't think, I can help you with that. You should talk to youth farewell office. I don't know much about the time after..."  
  
He didn't finish the sentence, but Jack knew what he wanted to say: before he had been arrested for possession of drugs.  
  
"I didn't mean that. I meant his real family, your family..."  
  
Rafael kept quiet for another moment.  
  
"What do you wanna know?"  
  
TBC 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:  
  
"We have a copy of the conversation between Brooks and Bellet."  
  
Martin turned to Vivian and Sam and gave them an inviting look.  
  
"Let's hear what the two had to talk about."  
  
Sam announced and Martin started the tape. They all listened fiercely.  
  
"Bellet – private detective, who is this?"  
  
It was the voice of a woman.  
  
"My name is Leeland Brooks, I'm an old friend of Mr. Bellet and I necessarily need to talk to him."  
  
"Alright Sir, I'll see what I can do."  
  
Some more seconds went by until Bellet took the call.  
  
"Laurence Bellet."  
  
"Laury, it's me. Lee. Leeland Brooks."  
  
Another few seconds of surprised silence, until they could hear him answer in disbelief.  
  
"Lee?"  
  
"Yeah, you remember?"  
  
"Lee! Of course I do. That must be half an eternity ago! How are you, what can I do for you?"  
  
"To be honest – I have a pretty serious problem, I need your help with."  
  
"How serious?"  
  
"It's goddamn serious. You could say that my future depends on it..."  
  
"Understood. What kind of a problem?"  
  
"I need to find someone. Someone who knows something about me that's better not made public, who can destroy my future, my life. And I need to find her quickly."  
  
"Her? Mmhhh, I get that. How soon do you need help."  
  
"At best conditions – immediately. I only have this week left."  
  
"Okay, Lee. I want you to meet someone. I can't take care of it myself, but I will send someone who can. He's absolutely professional and you can trust him. You can tell him everything you just told me. I will name you a meeting point and he'll take care of the rest. Apart from this I don't have anything to do with this and I don't want to and I won't hear anything about it ever again. Understood?"  
  
"Yeah, Laury. Whatever you want. Thanks man!"  
  
"It's okay. You will meet him tonight at six in the Avery Bar. He will sit at the counter, drinking a glass of water. He's wearing jeans and a red shirt."  
  
"That's not very much, don't you think ? That could be everybody. What if someone listens to our conversation, they could send an undercover agent or something."  
  
"Don't worry. You will know it is him. He has a pretty big scar on his left cheek. And if that still isn't enough for you, ask him something only we two know about. Like the girl you were after in High School, but who decided someone else should be her boyfriend. You remember?"  
  
You could hear Brooks malicious laughter on the other end of the line.  
  
"Oh yeah, I do remember that very well. That was a really nice move from you. I remember her so well. My god – we had some really good times. Did I ever thank you for this?"  
  
Bellet was laughing too now.  
  
"I don't know. But you definitely enjoyed it more than she did! Whatever – you gonna meet that guy tonight and you can ask him about it as a proof. You can trust him! He will help you!"  
  
"Okay. Thanks, man! I owe you!"  
  
"I will get back to that... oh and Lee, once again that one thing..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Don't call here again. I don't want to know anything about this stuff."  
  
"Of course, Laury, I will leave you in peace. Thanks once again for your help. I don't know how to ever thank you! If I can ever do anything for you – let me know!"  
  
"Sure, Lee. I wish you all the best. We'll get this straight – believe me."  
  
"Thanks, Laury."  
  
"Goodbye, Lee."  
  
The conversation was over. Vivian looked at Sam and saw her disgusted expression. Martin said out loud, what Sam was thinking.  
  
"Did he mean what I think he did? About that girl?"  
  
Sam nodded without saying a word.  
  
"Obviously Andrea wasn't the first."  
  
Vivian stated.  
  
"That's awful, that's disgusting!"  
  
Sam finally said. Martin tried to lead the conversation into a more constructive direction.  
  
"At last – we have some hints. Brooks actually did talk to Bellet and he was willing to help him. That means one of Bellets' helpers searches for Danny and Andrea and this guy also has taken the picture of Andrea in the mental institution. So Brooks received professional help and he is using it."  
  
Sam nodded again and than had another question to the team.  
  
"How did Brooks seem to you? I think he sounded goddamn decidedly and desperate."  
  
Vivian agreed to that.  
  
"Yeah. I think so, too."  
  
"So that means he's willing to go very far to protect himself. Far enough to let somebody get killed?"  
  
Martin resumed their thoughts, Vivian looked at the tape and back to Martin to answer his question.  
  
"I think so. We need to find this guy – the man Bellet send to Brooks to help him find Andrea."  
  
She looked at Sam, who was shaking her head.  
  
"Alright, Martin – you and I will talk to the bureau in New Orleans once again. Sam you gonna inform Jack – maybe he has found out something else by now."  
  
Vivian ordered and Sam seemed to be content with that. There was the one or other thing she and Jack had to talk about.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:  
  
"And you're absolutely sure it wasn't sold?"  
  
Sam heard Jack's pretty rapid question when she entered his office. He was tensely listening to the answer of the person on the other end of the line and was frowning while doing it.  
  
"Okay, that's really good. Very encouraging. And when have you been there the last time?"  
  
He listened closely once again.  
  
"Oh, yeah,..., I see,..., sure. And except for you and your brothers and sisters, nobody knows about it?"  
  
Jack seemed to like the answer he received, the expression on his face got softer again.  
  
"Yes, sure, but except for the last will and the deed of ownership, there is no other hint to it?"  
  
What he heard next made the expression on his face get harder again.  
  
"To which name?"  
  
He asked quickly and Sam saw his expression get even more desperate and saw him forming a silent "God damn it!".  
  
"Did Danny know about it?"  
  
He asked now and the answer didn't seem to be like he had wanted it to, for now he was saying out loud what had still been silent just seconds ago.  
  
"Damn it!"  
  
The person on the other end of the line obviously reacted very alarmed to his outbreak. "No, no it's okay. Everything's alright. For me it only means we have to hurry. I thank you for your information, you really helped me a lot."  
  
Without saying another word, he put down the phone, rose and looked at Sam.  
  
"I believe I know where Danny and Andrea are."  
  
Jack had almost pushed Sam out of his office and asked her to get Vivian and Martin. He obviously had found out something, something that needed their absolute and immediate attention. Sam called into the bureau to inform the two.  
  
"Vivian! Martin! Jack needs to talk to us. Now!"  
  
The two being addressed turned around abruptly and followed her order. They both seemed confused and also splenetic about Sam's address and Jack's order that was standing behind it. After all they had just distributed the working fields and tried to find some more information about Brook's accomplice. They couldn't use any distractions, unless they were helpful.  
  
"What do you mean by I know where Danny is´ ?"  
  
Sam asked in a calm voice after she had closed the door to Jack's office behind Vivian and Martin. Before Jack was able to answer, verbal chaos broke loose in the room.  
  
"What does she mean?"  
  
"You know where he is?"  
  
"Where? Why?"  
  
"Where did you get the information from?"  
  
Martin and Vivian stormed at him together. Jack rose his hands allaying and shot Sam a helpless look.  
  
"Calm down again! I'm just about to tell you."  
  
The two silenced and sat down.  
  
"I was talking to Danny's brother Rafael to find out if he would know a place where Danny and Andrea could be, where Andrea would feel safe. Something that lay in a timeframe before the rape and that had a connection to her corporal parents. He told me the family's house was sold. But there's another one at the Canadian border that still belongs to the family, something like a weekend house – more like a wooden barrack, than anything else. It wasn't sold after their parent's death and is only named in last will and the deed of ownership. Both documents are in Rafael's possession. He says it's the only place only the family, the administrator and the former owner know of, Andrea knows since her early childhood days and he believes she would feel safe at."  
  
"But – that's great!"  
  
Vivian commented, but Jack had to lessen her joy.  
  
"There's just one problem: the house is enlisted at land registry. It stayed on the parent's name until about four years ago. Due to official orders they were wanted to overwrite it to a living relative. Has taken them some time until they realized, but finally land registry noticed the signed owners already were dead. "  
  
Martin didn't even want to ask the next question.  
  
"Who was it overwritten to?"  
  
Jack kept quiet for a few more seconds.  
  
"To Erika. And Danny didn't know about it."  
  
"Oh, good lord."  
  
Vivian broke forth. Sam resumed her thoughts. "Brooks knows Andrea and this guy who is helping him, knows how to search for people. He has found Andrea in that clinic; I'm a hundred percent sure he has also found the land registry enlisting. They know where the two are. They know it!"  
  
Jack interrupted the moment of bitter awareness.  
  
"We need to get there quickly to find them and get them out of there, before it's to late. I already required a helicopter. We should be there in about an hour or an hour and a half. Martin, you will join me. Sam, Vivian – you stay here. Try to get some more information about Brooks accomplice and keep me posted."  
  
Nobody conflicted his orders. Jack just intensively hoped he had been quick enough. That he had received the information he had needed in time and that it wouldn't be too late when they arrived up there. To late to save Andrea... and Danny. They didn't have much time and they had a lot to lose. 


	20. Chapter 20

A.N.: I know this one is very, very short – but it's the only one that short in the whole story.  
So, don't worry! Please RR.  
  
Chapter 20:  
  
Holding his gun at aiming position, Jack quietly and cautiously opened the door to the barrack. He hesitated and listened intensively. He could hear someone breathe heavily. He was alarmed, but he didn't hear anything else. He gave a signal to Martin to secure him and entered the hall. He listened again and even with more intensity now, but he still didn't hear anything else, but the harsh breathing.  
  
Martin stepped behind him right at that moment, his gun in aiming position too. Jack signaled him to secure the rooms up the hall, while he turned to the opposite direction. He moved slowly and cautious – as silent as possible. He slowly opened the door to the dining-room. The breathing got louder, but there was nobody in the dining-room. The room was empty. He stepped back into the hall and looked into the direction Martin had gone to. He just stepped back to the hall and rose his thumb to signal Jack – the rooms up the hall were clear.  
  
Jack signaled Martin to follow him and turned to the last room of the house. The door wasn't closed but only abutted. He reached out an arm and went for the door handle, slowly and very cautious he opened the door.  
  
The first thing he saw was blood – a puddle of blood. The next thing he realized was, that there was somebody lying behind the door on the floor. He could see the legs – one sprawled, the other one angled. He turned around the door and aimed at the person lying behind it. It was a man unmoving and his eyes closed. He was bleeding from a wound near his hip, bleeding heavily. It was Brooks. Martin stepped into the room behind Jack, turning to the other part of the room.  
  
"Jack!"  
  
He said soundlessly. By his words Jack turned around to him, away from Brooks lying on the ground. He lowered his gun after he was looking into Martin's direction.  
  
They had found Danny...  
  
TBC


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:  
  
He was leaning against the couch half lying, with his eyes almost closed and heavily breathing. It was him they had heard. He was bleeding too. The floor around him, about the height of his abdomen was spilled with blood. He obviously was injured. Injured severely? Jack couldn't appraise that. He kneeled down beside and saw something more, something disturbing.  
  
He was holding a butterfly-knife in his hand – about 15 centimeter long. The blade was soaked in blood. Jack believed he had attacked Brooks with it, but then he saw Danny's gun lying on the floor about one and a half meters away. Danny had shot at Brooks, he hadn't used the knife. He hadn't protected himself with the knife, he had been attacked with it.  
  
Jack turned to Martin.  
  
"Call an ambulance!"  
  
Jack stayed where he was, kneeling beside Danny and looked at his face. He touched Danny's arm softly.  
  
"Danny? Can you hear me?"  
  
Danny opened his eyes slowly and looked at him, he nodded slightly and barely visible.  
  
"You in pain?"  
  
Jack asked in deep concern. What a needless question! But this was about keeping Danny conscious in first place.  
  
"Yeah, goddamnit!"  
  
Allaying Jack rose the hand he wasn't holding Danny with.  
  
"Okay..."  
  
Martin interrupted him.  
  
"Jack I don't get a connection inside here!"  
  
Jack half turned around.  
  
"Try from outside!"  
  
Before Jack turned back to Danny he saw Martin turning to the door of the room. And he saw something else, from the corner of his eyes: Danny's gun disappeared out of his view. Somebody grabbed for it. Somebody tried to grab the gun and as he turned around Jack fully realized the situation. Brooks had gone for Danny's gun and aimed at Martin. Jack realized immediately what Brooks wanted to do. he wanted to prevent that Martin called an ambulance, that they saved Danny's life. Jack grabbed his gun and aimed at Brooks.  
  
"Martin!"  
  
He yelled warningly and Martin turned around abruptly. But Jack had attracted Brooks attention when he warned Martin. He aimed at Jack now, who was trying to protect Danny with his own body as well as possible. Jack asked himself what Brooks was up to, he knew he wouldn't achieve anything with what he was trying to do. But he remembered the phone call he had heard: Brooks desperately wanted to keep his freedom, but now he had been found by FBI. He had nothing more to loose.  
  
"Brooks! Give up! Put the gun down! You won't get out of here."  
  
Brooks reacted, but in another way than Jack had expected – he loaded his gun.  
  
"Brooks! You know that's of no use, give up."  
  
Brooks lowered his gun and for a moment it looked like he would actually give up. But Jack wasn't willing to let himself get baffled by this. But Martin stepped towards Brooks in order to take the gun from him. Jack was still tensed and aimed at him. Martin did so too, but less decisive and less cautious, and it happened what Jack had expected. All of a sudden Brooks rose the gun once again to shot at Martin, who was now standing directly in front of him. But Martin was quicker and Jack was prepared – they shot at Brooks before he even had a chance to react.  
  
Jack felt Danny flinch behind him. Both shots hit Brooks in the chest, he widened his eyes and tried to breathe but he just managed a labored choke. He was dying. He breathed in deeply once more and then the air left his body with a rattling sound. Blood poured out of his mouth and down his chin. he dropped the gun and Martin took it from his hands after he had secured his own and felt for a pulse. He turned to Jack and shook his head. He was dead, they had shot him.  
  
Jack signaled Martin to finally leave the barrack and call an ambulance. Then he turned back to Danny, who had his eyes closed. Mild panic rose in Jack, but Danny was still breathing, he could hear it and he could see it too, the rising and falling of his chest. He was still alive.  
  
"Danny?"  
  
He asked softly once again and received a look. Jack had another look on the wound, the pool of blood had gotten bigger.  
  
"Danny, I need to have a look at the injury."  
  
He told him in a calm voice and pulled up the shirt his co-worker was wearing, so he now had free sight to the wound, but it was hard to really see it due to all the blood around it. Jack opened the next best drawer in a small cupboard near the dining-table, pulled out a white table-cloth and wiped away the blood from the wound. Danny grabbed his arm hardly and grimaced with pain.  
  
But now Jack could see it: it was a deep, heavily bleeding stab wound, about four inches deep and an inch wide. He needed to do something to stop the bleeding, so he directly looked at Danny and tried to calm him.  
  
"Danny, you're loosing too much blood, I need to try to stop the bleeding. It'll hurt. Please try to relax."  
  
He explained. Danny nodded tensed and clenched his teeth. Jack pressed the cloth to the wound all out and caused Danny to scream in pain and fast and heavily breathing in and out several times. But the pain seemed to lessen and Danny grabbed Jack's arm once again to make him look at him.  
  
"You need to protect Andrea."  
  
It wasn't an order but a begging almost desperate question.  
  
"Promise that you will protect her, Jack..."  
  
The begging tone left his voice more and more and made him sound even more desperate now. Jack nodded soothingly.  
  
"I promise."  
  
He assured Danny, but it didn't seem to calm him down. His panic, his fear for Andrea didn't lessen. He tried to escape the soft pressure Jack was putting to his shoulders, so he wouldn't move and aggravate the injury even more than it already was and tried to sit upright. The try ended with him breathing in hardly and screaming in agony. Jack put more pressure on him.  
  
"Calm down. You need to relax. It's okay, everything's gonna be okay. You're both safe. So don't you move, you need to keep still. Lay still or you'll make it even worse! I will take care of Andrea – I promise,..., I swear!"  
  
A long moment of silence emerged before Jack softly asked a question.  
  
"Okay?"  
  
Danny seemed to relax.  
  
"Okay."  
  
Jack lessened the pressure a bit and had another look at Danny's injury. With horror he realized that the former white table cloth he had used to put pressure on the wound had changed it's color from bright white to a deep red. Danny was loosing blood – a lot of it – too much of it.  
  
"Where's the goddamn ambulance!"  
  
Jack yelled into Martin's direction but didn't get an answer.  
  
"Jack."  
  
Danny's voice was calm and weak as he was talking to him again. His strength was leaving him, more and more. The longer he was lying here, in his own blood, with a severe stab wound that probably had striked a major artery and had to wait for help, the weaker he became. Jack knew it and Danny probably knew it too. It was looking anything but good for him. Jack didn't like the color of his face, the weakness in his voice and his slow almost gasping breathing. And what concerned him the most was the pool of blood around him, that covered his clothing, his body and the floor and was building little slops.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
He asked back, his voice raspy and throaty.  
  
"Andrea." 


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:  
  
Jack tried to pull himself together and get his voice under control again. Danny knew damn good how bad the situation was for him, Jack didn't need to assure him in this by his own visible and audible doubts.  
  
"What about her? Where is she?"  
  
Danny tried to have a look at Brooks.  
  
"He's dead, Danny. You're safe – he can't harm you two any more. You can tell me where she is."  
  
"Did she call you?"  
  
The question confused Jack. Danny didn't really seem to realize any more , what was happening around him. Why did he believe Andrea would call him?  
  
"No, why should she have done this?"  
  
Danny didn't even take any further notice of the question, which just assured Jack that Danny slowly was loosing consciousness. He wanted to give all the useful information to Jack before it would actually happen. Before it was too late.  
  
"About 20 meters away from the house, there is an old, dried out fountain, leading to an underground riverbank, that's leaving the rock formation about three miles away from here. When Andrea was younger we've been climbing down there several times. I had wanted her to wait there for about twenty minutes. If I shouldn't be there by then, she should walk the three miles, search for the next phone booth and call you to ask you for help."  
  
Danny stopped several times while he was talking about Andrea in a calm and slow voice, gasping for air between words. He closed his eyes, grimaced in pain and grabbed Jack's arm hardly once again. The pain seemed to improve.  
  
"What time is it?"  
  
He asked all of a sudden in a pressed and pain ridden tone and that calm Jack almost hadn't understood it. He was frowning.  
  
"17:49 o clock."  
  
He answered his question.  
  
"Then she is gone for more then 30 minutes, already. You need to catch her where the river is leaving the rocks."  
  
"I'll take care of it, as soon as the ambulance is here."  
  
Danny fiercely shook his head no and grabbed even harder, Jack could feel the starting pain in his arm. He groaned in agony and tried to escape Jack's grip once again, but he wouldn't let him.  
  
"Jack,..., please, I..."  
  
Danny managed to say. Then he started to gasp and choke. All of a sudden Jack realized why Danny was trying to escape from him. He helped him to turn aside just in time. He was vomiting, but not as Jack had expected it –it was blood, much of it. Jack remembered what he was knowing about such a symptom. It pointed to internal injuries, severe inner bleedings. Danny was bleeding to death.  
  
"Martin! The ambulance!"  
  
Jack yelled once again.  
  
"They will be here in a moment!"  
  
Danny turned back to his former position and breathed in slowly.  
  
"You need to search for her now. I'm not sure, she'll make it. I shouldn't have left her alone, but I was sure I would manage the situation with Brooks. Please Jack search for her. Search her now. Help her. Please."  
  
Jack put more pressure on his shoulders once again.  
  
"They will be here in a moment. The ambulance will be here. I'll search for her as soon as the medics arrive. Don't you worry. We'll find her, we'll protect her. It's gonna be okay..."  
  
He expected Danny's resistance once again, but it wouldn't happen. Jack looked at his co-worker's face – he had his eyes closed. But it wasn't what bothered Jack. Something was wrong. Something else, but he couldn't make out what it was. Then he realized, all of a sudden and panic overwhelmed him. The steady and soft rising and falling of Danny's chest had stopped. He wasn't breathing any more. He stopped breathing.  
  
"Danny? Daniel!"  
  
Before he even had a chance to react to his condition, the medics had arrived. One of them roughly grabbed Jack by his arm and forced him to get up.  
  
"Would you step aside, Sir? We're going to help him."  
  
The other medic told him in a calm voice. Jack informed them about Danny's alarming condition.  
  
"He's not breathing."  
  
"Okay, sir. Please leave now and let us do our job. "  
  
It were the words of the medic that had just lifted him to his feet. Jack could still hear Danny's last words in his head.  
  
"You have to protect Andrea." Jack knew he couldn't do anything for Danny any more. It was up to the medics and doctors in hospital to help him, to safe his life. Jack could just fulfill Danny's wish and his own promise. He had to find Andrea.  
  
Martin, who had been walking up and down in front of the house nervously, stopped in the middle of his movement when Jack left the building. He swallowed hard when he saw Jack. He had dark stains on the knees of his trousers and splatters of blood on his white shirt, hands and forearms. He was soaked in blood – Danny's blood. Martin barely dared to ask him.  
  
"How is he?"  
  
Jack looked at him intensively and then turned away before he gave an answer.  
  
"It doesn't look good – he's loosing too much blood and he's not breathing."  
  
Jack kept silent for a few more moments before he finally turned back to Martin.  
  
"He's dying in there."  
  
Martin just looked back. What was he supposed to say? There was nothing to say.  
  
"Call for backup. They shall separate in two teams. One half is meeting with you at the house, the other with me down at the bottom of the mountain at the riverbank of Scandon Creek. Andrea flew along the underground riverbank, which is beginning right behind the house at the bottom of the old fountain. Danny wanted her to flee, call us and ask us for help. Don't get too close to her. She reacts very cold and aggressive to people, especially to men. Maybe she'll trust me if I can prove I am the one Danny has send her to. So whatever you do, wait for me." 


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:  
  
Sam sat at her desk, chewing at a pencil and was scanning through the few pieces of information they had found out about Brook's accomplice. It wasn't enough to get a hold on him. Even if they desperately wished for it. He just hoped Jack had been right with his suspicion and Danny and Andrea really were up there near the Canadian border. And she wished even more desperately for them to arrive there in time. She winced when the phone on her desk started ringing. She completely had been lost in thought.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
She answered the phone in a questioning tone. She was that much in thought, that she didn't even manage to state her name. She was just about to do it now, when she received an answer from the other end of the line.  
  
"Sam, this is Jack. We found them..."  
  
Sam breathed in deeply, looked at Vivian and raised her thumb. She could see Vivian sigh too.  
  
"How are they?"  
  
Vivian had stepped to Sam's desk and she held the phone in a way that Vivian could also hear Jack's answer.  
  
"We haven't found Andrea yet, she is hiding. But we know where she is and as far as we know – she isn't injured."  
  
"And Danny?"  
  
Sam sounded afraid and Jack keeping silent didn't make it any easier for her not to.  
  
"It doesn't look so good. Brooks attacked him. He's severely injured and has lost a lot of blood. The medics are treating him right now. I'll drive to the hospital as soon as we've found Andrea."  
  
"Do you believe he'll make it?"  
  
She sounded tensed and there was silence again for a moment.  
  
"I don't know, Sam. I don't know. Maybe you two should come up here."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"I'll call you as soon as there are any news."  
  
Sam hung up the phone and looked at Vivian.  
  
"I think we better should hurry." She stated. Jack, the way he had been talking to her, had scared her. This was pretty serious – damn serious. 


	24. Chapter 24

In the semi-darkness of the cave-channel, only enlightened by the flash- lights of the search-party, Jack barely was able to see anything. But he could hear Andrea. He had asked the search-group to be absolutely quiet and now he could hear Andrea's fast, pressed breathing. She was afraid, panicked in fear, scared to death. He needed to calm her and he just hoped she actually would trust him.  
  
"Andrea?"  
  
He yelled, but she didn't answer. He tried again calm, slowly, accentuated and soft.  
  
"Andrea?"  
  
Still no answer. He went into the direction the noises came from, stepped closer to Andrea – very slowly.  
  
"Andrea, my name is Jack, Jack Malone. I'm with the FBI. Danny had wanted you to call me and ask me for help. Don't be afraid, we won't harm you. You're safe now. "  
  
She still didn't answer him, but Jack got closer – slowly, very slowly and cautious. He couldn't see her by now, but he didn't like her breathing. She was still panicking in fear and almost hyperventilating. He just hoped she wasn't armed, because he was pretty sure that – in the condition she currently was in – she would attack him. Now he could see her. She cowered leaned against the wall of the cave, her knees tightened, breathing heavily and he believed to see her crying. He stopped, he didn't want to scare her even more.  
  
"Andrea? Do you understand me? Please don't be afraid, don't fear me. Everything's okay. You're safe now, I'm here to help you. Danny has asked me to find you and bring you to a safe place. I'm gonna do everything I can to protect you. Please trust me. I will help you."  
  
She reacted, now she reacted. She rose her head and looked at him.  
  
"Why did Claire give up that night at the lake?"  
  
She asked all of a sudden and that quiet, Jack barely could hear her. He had difficulties to categorize her question and see a sense in it – at last not immediately. But then he realized what she was doing: it was a test. Andrea tested if he really was, who he said he was. Danny had told her something about a case, something that wasn't in the files, something only he and Danny knew about. She tested if she could trust him. Jack hesitated for a moment.  
  
"Danny talked to her and told her about his,..., your parent's death, he could convince her to put down her weapon."  
  
She didn't say anything and just looked at him. Finally she rose from her position.  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
Again he needed some seconds to get what she was talking about. Following her thoughts was a difficult task. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to tell her the truth. If her condition allowed him to actually tell her. But he needed her to trust him, needed to find a way she would do so and therefore he couldn't lie to her – even if it was for her own sake.  
  
"He's in hospital, Andrea. He was attacked."  
  
He couldn't see any emotional reaction from her, but it was dark down here. She took a step towards him – slowly and hesitatingly. She probably was still afraid, but he had passed her test, she would try with a little faith. She trusted Danny and he had told her she could trust Jack. She seemed willing to give him a chance he actually could help her. When he reached out a hand, she winced and stepped back. He took back the hand, it was difficult to cope with her. He had to remind himself over and over again, that he couldn't treat her like he normally would, he needed to be careful.  
  
"I'm sorry. "  
  
Again he received no answer, she just looked at him seriously.  
  
"I want to see Danny."  
  
She stated and he nodded, although she possibly couldn't see that in the darkness of the cave.  
  
"Okay."  
  
She passed him by.  
  
"It's about ¾ of a mile to the entrance, I'll take you there."  
  
No answer – her manners weren't that much developed, she didn't have a word of thankfulness for him. He thought it to be strange and irritating, but he could understand it. She trusted almost nobody and she had lived a very limited life for the past four years at last. She needed time, needed to rehabilitate. 


	25. Chapter 25

Sam and Vivian had taken the helicopter to the Canadian border half an hour ago. And they were waiting for any news, waiting for Jack to call them back. That he told them what had happened and how the situation currently was. But nothing like this had happened until now and they would at least need another 30 minutes. Sam just hoped it wouldn't be too late then. She hoped intensively for everything to be okay and this damn situation to take a good turn in the end. She looked up when Vivian touched her arm and pointed to the pilot. He looked at her and tapped at his headphones. He obviously wanted to tell her something, but she didn't get what it was. Then she heard a cracking in her headphones. She looked at Vivian to find out if she could hear it too and gave her a questioning look. She rose her thumb.  
  
"Agent Spade, I'm David Marsters, Federal Border Guard. Agent Malone has asked me to inform you, we have found agent Taylor's sister."  
  
It wasn't what she wanted to know in first place, but it was extremely soothing to know that neither Brooks nor his accomplice had found Andrea and harmed her in any way.  
  
"Agent Taylor?"  
  
She asked in a tensed tone, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to hear the answer.  
  
"Agent Malone and Fitzgerald and Taylor's sister are on their way to the hospital. There are no news until now. Agent Malone wanted to call you back as soon as he has talked to agent Taylor's doctor."  
  
Sam cursed silently, it was almost ¾ of an hour, that Jack had called her and told her to come up there. Something must've been occurring in the meantime. She didn't wanna have to wait any longer, this current condition was unbearable. It was cruel for everyone being involved. She wanted to have certainty, but she would have to wait some more – willy-nilly. 


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:  
  
"We got a male victim with a stab wound, approximately 30 years old. He has lost a lot of blood and probably suffers from inner injuries. He was already unconscious when we arrived there. BP is at 80 over 60and still falling, pulse of 120 and no respiration."  
  
The medic informed the doctor at ER when they entered the hospital. The ride back from the remote lodging at the bottom of the mountain down to the next city's hospital had taken them almost fifteen minutes and they had been extremely concerned about their patient's condition. The injury was severe and he was losing too much blood, but as long as they weren't in hospital, they couldn't do much to help him. They could just stabilize him and hope his condition would stay as it was until they arrived at ER – and now they had made it. It was no longer in their hands to support him, the doctors would take care of him now.  
  
The doctor removed the crude, blood-soaked bandage to have a closer look at the injury and decide what to do about it. In the meantime the surgeon was checking her patient's respiration – she didn't like what she saw.  
  
"There's blood in his mouth, his airways are probably blocked – he doesn't get enough air by the oxygen mask. Get me a tube."  
  
The doctor was stating orders himself, too.  
  
"I need surgery utensils and 25mg of Novocaine, quick! And get another IV- line going, he's losing too much blood."  
  
The doctor of ER and the female surgeon, who was working with him, were assisted by several nurses. One of them – she was still pretty young and had only started a few weeks ago, had received the order to stuck another needle to a vein, so they were able to give more saline and try to balance the blood loss. But she wasn't moving – she was just standing there, holding the needle in her hand and stared at the scenery developing in front of her.  
  
"Hurry with that, damn it! We're losing him!"  
  
The young nurse winced by the doctors' harsh words, but she moved. She rushed to get the needle, she held in hands, stuck to a vein and hang on another saline bag. The doctor took no further notice of her and looked at the surgeon who was assisting him and was currently putting the tube to her patient's throat.  
  
"How does it go?"  
  
"I'm finished."  
  
"You can help me here, then."  
  
The surgeon stepped beside the ER doctor and had a look at the injury, too.  
  
"Okay, get me a scalpel and a clip/fix - we're going to try to stop the bleeding down here for the first. But we have to hurry – that's too much blood he's losing. I'll have to take him to surgery as soon as possible."  
  
The nurse reached the to her and the surgeon cut a wider opening and managed to stop the bleeding by branching off the artery.  
  
"That's it for the moment. We're going to do the rest in surgery – hurry now!"  
  
The doctor looked behind her, when she left the room with her patient, being accompanied by a nurse, in a rush to get to surgery immediately. But he kept standing in the trauma room for a few more moments, trying to focus. He knew he was supposed to speak with the family next and if the situation, the patient's condition was as uncertain as it was in this case, it was always a difficult task to explain to the family members. The young nurse he had just snarled at, stepped besides him. She seemed deeply concerned and somehow overwhelmed by what she just saw. It was just due to the fact, that she had just started, she hadn't really seen much by now and she was lacking of the routine the older nurses working here had. She probably would get used to it one day, she had to – otherwise she couldn't do this job. But that didn't mean he couldn't give her a bit of emotional assistance.  
  
"I'm sorry, Sir – I didn't mean to..., but..."  
  
"How long have you been working here?"  
  
He asked without taking any further notice of her apologize.  
  
"Two weeks Sir."  
  
"What have you been doing since that two weeks?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Have you been assisting at treating trauma patient's before? Have you ever experienced a situation like this before?"  
  
"No,..., no Sir – it's the first time today."  
  
"I think I can take your apology then. You know – practical work is always different from the theory they teach you and being in the situation can overwhelm one, if it is the first time. You'll get routine, you'll get used to it – don't worry."  
  
"I mean – it really looked pretty nasty..."  
  
The doctor had a look through the trauma room – the bandages, the surgery utensils, the emptied ampoules of medication and the blood – everywhere.  
  
"Yeah. It did."  
  
The nurse changed the subject all of a sudden, her voice more silent now as if she feared his answer.  
  
"Is he going to make it?"  
  
The doctor didn't look at her concerned, questioning face and his voice sounded emotionless when he answered.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"You are all family?"  
  
The doctor gave them a surprised look.  
  
"No. Only her. We..."  
  
Jack tried to explain, but the doctor didn't even let him finish his sentence.  
  
"Miss, if you would join me then, please."  
  
He reached out for her arm and she winced and stepped back.  
  
"Don't touch me."  
  
She sounded calm, but there was a menacing undertone in her voice. The doctor reached back and pointed to a currently empty room, so he could talk to her all alone. Jack tried to keep him from doing it.  
  
"Listen, we're with the FBI. Agent Taylor's working for us, for my unit. I have a more than entitled right to be informed about his current condition."  
  
The doctor looked from Jack to Andrea.  
  
"Miss, it's your decision."  
  
He told her. She looked at him expressionless and shrugged, she didn't care about this whole discussion and competence problems. She simply wanted to know if her brother was alright, if he had survived Brook's attack.  
  
"Your brother was brought in here, having severe inner bleedings and a perforated . We were able to stop the bleeding, but he has lost a lot of blood none the less. His breathing had already stopped when the medics first treated him and he's still not breathing by himself. We had to put in a tube. The most likely can't be safed, we'll have to remove it. From my point that's all I can tell you right now."  
  
"Will he survive?"  
  
Jack asked in an extremely tensed tone.  
  
"I don't know – we have to wait for surgery results. The surgeon who's operating can tell you more about it afterwards. You can wait upstairs if you wish." Jack nodded.  
  
"Thanks, Doc."  
  
He thought about calling Sam and Vivian, but decided not to. There was nothing new he could tell them, nothing that would give them certainty. The doctor didn't know if Danny would survive and telling this to them definitely wouldn't calm them down. The doctor was right, they had to wait for the surgeon's statement. She would bring them certainty – in the one or other way.  
  
He followed Andrea who was heading into the direction of the elevators, being extremely focussed not to be touched by anyone. She hadn't showed any visible reaction – no fear, no anger, no sadness, no tension. She definitely felt something – this was about her brother. Her brother, who had protected her, had saved her life, had put himself into danger, mortal danger, for her – she was feeling. She just couldn't express it.  
  
Jack realized more and more how much Brooks had destroyed in Andrea in these few moments of his own satisfaction. How much he had changed, degraded her life. How much she had suffered, was still suffering and would suffer in the future. How much she had lost. He wasn't sorry, he and Martin had to shoot Brooks. He really wasn't.  
  
He just hoped Andrea wouldn't have to lose anything more. 


	27. Chapter 27

A.N.: I just realized that I missed to fill in some words in the last chapter... Sorry! I'm gonna  
repost it as soon as I find some time.  
  
Chapter 27:  
  
Vivian and Sam reached the waiting room of surgery about an hour later. They were nervous, they were tensed and they were afraid. Cause up to now they still hadn't received any news - at last nobody had told them about. Jack's call, which had informed them about Danny being injured, already being two and a half hours ago, didn't help calming them at all. It wasn't a good sign, if the doctors kept silent that long . They were worrying – both of them. And at last Sam was angry about Jack's behavior – she would've wished to be informed about the fact that Danny was in surgery. That he was still alive! But she didn't even get a chance to blame him about this. Because not even a minute after their arrival, the surgeon entered the waiting room.  
  
"You're here for Daniel Taylor?"  
  
She asked and Jack answered her question positively.  
  
"Who of you is Andrea?"  
  
She looked at the three women and Andrea took a step towards her without saying a word. This time Sam played the part Jack had done down in the ER.  
  
"We would all like to know how he is."  
  
She had waited for any news long enough, she wanted to know about it now. The surgeon turned to Andrea, that gave her permission by nodding. She was completely fed up with this see-saw.  
  
"We were able to stop the bleeding and repair the injured artery. But we had to remove the spleen, the injury was too severe. But that's not life threatening – we can balance this by medication and we were also able to balance the blood loss. His life's no longer in danger. The only thing I'm really worried about is his breathing. It's still pretty low, so we'll keep the tube in until his breathing normalizes. It'll take a few days, but you have to put into consideration that it was a severe injury. But he will be better soon."  
  
"He survives?"  
  
Jack asked in a thankful tone and the surgeon approved.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Can I see him?"  
  
Andrea asked with a soundless voice.  
  
"Yeah, of course. He's still unconscious due to the medication for surgery, but he should wake up in about half an hour."  
  
Jack stepped closer to the surgeon and took her aside.  
  
"She shouldn't go in there all alone. I'm not sure this would be good for her, she receives psychological treatment. Maybe somebody should look after her."  
  
The surgeon interpreted his proposal slightly different from it's actual meaning. "You wanna join her?"  
  
"Yeah sure – why not."  
  
When they entered Danny's room, something was happening with Andrea, Jack had believed would happen earlier, but he hadn't seen up to the moment they had arrived in hospital– she started crying. She didn't even make a sound, but he could see the tears running down her cheeks. What had happened to her brother visibly touched her heart. He lay still on his bed, with his eyes closed. The tube entered his mouth and was connected to a respirator, with which hissing Danny's chest was rising and falling in a completely unnatural way. He had a needle stuck to the back of his right hand leading to an IV-bag with saline and another canula in a vein of his left arm, so they wouldn't have to stuck a needle to it every time they had to give the various medicaments to him, he would receive in the next few days and weeks. He had an ECG going too, which checked his vitals and Jack could hear the steady beeping of the heart- monitor.  
  
The scene was that unreal and the person in bed seemed so much unlike Danny. He seemed so helpless, that much in need of protection and so vulnerable. Jack couldn't remember to ever have seen him like this and he never wanted to have to see this ever again. This was wrong and it could have been anticipated, but this wasn't the time to blame anyone for what had happened. Danny had followed his instincts, came to a decision and had made a mistake – this were the consequences. But he would make it, everything would be alright. They had managed the situation and nobody had been killed – at least no one who didn't deserve to. They had found both of them in time and Andrea wouldn't have to testify. She never ever would have to think about Brooks and his motivations, wouldn't have to be afraid of him ever again.  
  
She stepped to her brother's bed and sat down, Jack was still at her side. None of them said a word and Andrea didn't do anything, she was just sitting there. Finally she wiped the tears from her face. Jack wished to give assistance to her in some way, but he knew exactly how she would react, if he touched her. So he didn't do it.  
  
"Don't be afraid."  
  
He said in a calm voice. Her reaction proved once again how less contact she had to the outside world in the past few years. She wasn't thankful for him trying to show sympathy, she didn't trust him. Her previous bit of trust had just been a temporary solution.  
  
"I'm not. I listened to the surgeon, too. I know he'll get well."  
  
He silenced, just didn't say anything more.  
  
The sounds of the heart-monitor were changing, they we're still steady – so there was nothing to worry about, but they were different. Faster and more forceful, too. Something must been happening – his condition was changing, improving. Jack had a slight look at Andrea, but she rather didn't have seemed to realize or she didn't care. At least there was no movement from her.  
  
They had been waiting for something to happen, for the situation to somehow change, for Danny to wake up. Although she had told him otherwise, Jack was sure Andrea was tensed and she was concerned, but she wasn't willing to talk about it, especially not with him. She seemed uneasy about not being alone in here, but sharing the room and her emotions with someone she barely knew, didn't trust and didn't want to know. But there was nothing to do to help that – Jack couldn't leave her alone and he was the next best thing to a person she could have faith in. Danny had told her she could.  
  
Jack himself moved a bit closer to the bed and had a look at his fallen agent's face. He was waking up – he could see it. His eyelids were fluttering and finally he managed to open his eyes. Jack wasn't sure if he was in pain or not, for the moment he just seemed deeply confused and somehow afraid. Of course he was – in contrary to his surrounding he still didn't know what had happened to his sister: if they had found her, if she had trusted them and joined them, if she was alright or if she was injured in any way. He had been unconscious before they had searched for his sister and he had been deeply uncertain about her even making the way through the cave. On the other hand – this was about his own situation – he didn't know where he was, since when and if he was okay. So Jack would have the difficult task to calm him and he would have to do it alone because he honestly didn't believe Andrea would be a help. He hurried to explain to Danny, before he was fully awake and would remember the events of the past few hours completely – this would just fear and upset him even more.  
  
"Danny – it's me Jack, do you understand me? Don't you worry, you're in hospital. You were attacked by Brooks and severely injured, but the doctor's in surgery were able to help you. Everything's okay. You'll be better soon."  
  
He could literally see his agent calm down by the sound of his soothing words. The expression on his face became softer and he didn't seem so troubled any longer. He closed his eyes for a moment and Jack was just about to ask him if he was okay, when his former tension came back and his eyes widened in terror. He must've remembered something, realized something. He forcefully grabbed for Jack's arm and looked at him with an expression of absolute fear on his face. Jack tried to understand what he had said to him, that feared him so.  
  
He had just tried to explain what had happened... What had happened? The attack. Brooks. Danny was worried about Brooks, deeply afraid if Brooks had managed to escape or even worse, had managed to harm Andrea or if he had been able to take him down. He didn't know it and probably – due to the severe injury, the blood loss or the state of shock he had been in – whatever it was, couldn't remember what had happened to Brooks.  
  
"He's dead, Danny. We had to shoot him. He's gone, he won't do any harm no more."  
  
Once again he seemed to relax and the fear that had overwhelmed him, had tensed his senses and made him focus on Jack completely, was falling from him. But unfortunately this was letting his senses get more able to realize other things, different things going on around him. As the fact that he wasn't able to talk and even worse: wasn't able to breathe on his own. That there was something stuck in his moth, shoved down his throat and didn't allow him to use his voice. Jack wasn't able to imagine what kind of a feeling it was to have a tube running down one's throat. He didn't even have the slightest idea, but he was pretty sure it was one of the most uncomfortable and disturbing situations one could be in. And for Danny it was obviously was, as Jack could see. He widened his eyes in absolute horror and panic, tried to gasp for air and finally was about to grab for the tube. It was a normal, a natural reflex – an instinct. He wanted to get this thing out of his throat, removed from the place where it was right now and with the emotions washing over him, he wasn't able to think about the consequences. He probably wasn't even able to think after all. So he went to grab for it, but Jack, who halfway had expected this since the doctor in ER had told him about it, was quicker than him. He was holding his arms before he was able to reach the tube and held him down.  
  
"Danny, Daniel – calm down! It's okay. Don't worry, it's all good, there's no need to worry. It's a tube, the doctor's had to put in a tube. It's helping you breathe. Please try to relax – your breathing is labored and you won't get enough air , breathing on your own. So please come down, calm yourself and relax."  
  
Danny was still struggling against him, still trying to get rid of the grip on his arms, but his resistance lessened. He seemed to have listened to Jack and at last tried to relax, although it probably really wasn't easy. Jack could see it by the younger agent's still troubled and tensed expression on his face. But the heart-monitor's beeping slowed down again – his heartbeat was normalizing, his panic got less. Jack waited another few moments before he let go of Danny's arms and was sure he wouldn't try to grab the tube once again. But he seemed to have released him to early, because all of a sudden there was tension rising again. Something was wrong – of course something was wrong, he wasn't able to breathe – but there was something else. It was nothing physical, but whatever it was, it was deeply troubling his agent. He hardly grabbed for Jack's arm and tried to speak, but due to the tube no words could be heard. Jack moved closer and tried to focus on Danny's lip movement.  
  
"Andrea?"  
  
Jack didn't really get the problem. She was here, by his side... But she hadn't said a word and she had reached any closer and Jack – sitting right in front of him – was probably blocking his view.  
  
"She's here, she's okay – don't worry. Everything's alright – we found her and she wasn't hurt. A little scared perhaps, but nothing more. Everything's okay. "  
  
Jack moved aside to give him some space and a chance to see Andrea. The slight smile on Danny's face showed him that he actually had. He was reaching out a hand for her and Jack halfway expected Andrea to move back as she had done with everybody else. But he was wrong – suddenly there came a reaction from her. She moved closer to her brother, took his hand and – Jack couldn't believe it was really happening – her emotionless face showed a smile. She was smiling. Danny was gently squeezing her hand and gave her a questioning look.  
  
"I'm okay."  
  
She whispered in a choking voice. She was showing emotion for the first time since they had found her. He could see a smile appearing on Danny's face, before he sank back to the bed completely and closed his eyes. He probably was tired and exhausted – he had just gone through surgery and he had received narcotics and still got pain medication, so this was understandable. He needed to rest, he needed to recover. Jack could see Andrea letting go of her brother's hand and gently putting it down on the sheets of the bed. Then she rose and left the room without saying another word.  
  
Jack sat down there some more moments just being thankful for the final ending of this situation, because it could have finished worse, much worse then it had. Finally he rose, gently squeezed the younger man's shoulder and smiled slightly. He knew he was already asleep, but he needed to say it out loud – not to calm him, but more so he could believe it himself.  
  
"It's over, Danny. It's over..." 


	28. Epilogue

A.N.: Final chapter is up!!! Thanx to all of you people who reviewed. You'd been so helpful,  
friendly and encouraging. I really appreciated it! Thanx to all the  
other people who assured me to do this and who helped me translating.  
Enjoy!  
  
Epilogue:  
  
It had been four weeks since the attack. Danny had been released from hospital two weeks earlier and was cleared for duty on Monday.  
  
Andrea, who hadn't been forced to give her evidence in front of the jury - now Brooks was dead - had returned to the clinic in Vermont.  
  
They were still observing Laurence Bellet to get a hold on Brook's accomplice, but there hadn't been any progress so far. Still there was no danger emerging from him either. He'd been assigned to help Brooks to stay out of prison and now that Brooks was dead, his task was over.  
  
At the moment Danny was sitting at Jack's private office, awaiting whatever was next to happen. Jack had informed him he wanted to talk to him and had asked him to come in today, before he was supposed to start work again.  
  
"So, how are you?"  
  
"I'm fine. I'm still a little short of breath from time to time, but that'll be okay..."  
  
Jack had wanted to keep their conversation constructive, but it wouldn't work. He barely had a hold on his temper since Danny entered the room and he wasn't willing to make him believe he tolerated his behavior. He'd put them all into concern, had endangered his life and the life of his sister and had broken almost every rule the department had. And,..., he'd scared the hell out of all of them. So finally Jack just let loose.  
  
"Goddamn it Danny! You could have gotten killed out there!"  
  
"I know Jack, I know! But I had to, I had to protect her. It was..."  
  
"It was bloody stupid!"  
  
Danny knew Jack was right. There was nothing he could say to make it any better and he didn't want to defend himself. He had been wrong, no question about that. It had been a mistake, but being trapped in the situation it had seemed right. He could only try to explain it.  
  
"It has been a mistake, yes. I see that now, too. But when I was forced to decide what to do, it seemed to be the best thing I could do to protect her. I was afraid, taking her into custody and trying to protect her with the help of the department, would endanger her more than trying to do it myself. I needed to take her somewhere where she wouldn't be found – a place nobody would ever find any connection to. At least not, if he didn't know the family.They'd found her in that hospital, they definitely would have found her here."  
  
"You couldn't be sure of that. It's even worse: you were completely wrong. Your decision endangered your sister's life and made you end up in hospital!"  
  
"I was sure at the moment! And apart from that, like you already said: she's my sister. You know she's a special kind of person. There's not many people she trusts in. It was my task, my responsibility, my family, my blood! So from my point of view there was no other option than protecting her by myself."  
  
Jack gave him a slight smile and a nod. He had known this before, had even explained it like this before, although he really didn't like the motivation his agent had. He understood.  
  
Danny knew he had mistaken in the decision he made, but it was too late to change that now. All Jack wanted was to make him see, that it was wrong and to make sure he'd never act that tempered, emotionally, quick and stupid once again.  
  
"I just thought you'd have a little more faith, a little more trust into all of us."  
  
There was no sign of reproach in his voice, it was just a simple question. Jack didn't mean to attack him, he simply wished to find out, if there would be a second time for this to happen. But from the deep effection on the younger agent's face, he could tell, there wouldn't.  
  
"Well I do and I just hope you believe me. I know I didn't do much to prove that lately, but as I already said: I was wrong. And the only thing I clearly state is: I'm sorry, I really am."  
  
He paused shortly and a smirk appeared on his face.  
  
"So, you throw me out?"  
  
"As much as you got on my nerves and I wished to do it in first place; there's no way, I can effort to lose you. So you'll be back on Monday and I'll keep an eye on you. Understood?"  
  
"Okay,..., thanks, Jack. I really thank you."  
  
He smiled again, then turned to leave the room. He was just about to open the door and step outside, when he was held back by Jack once again.  
  
"Danny?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Good to have you back here."  
  
The end 


End file.
